One Messed Up Alphabet
by Who really Knows
Summary: Naruto stumbles onto a book of secrets that lead him to discover shocking things about the people around him. Friends, foes, and acquaintances- the lines begin to blur and he's not sure who is who anymore. Is it good? Is it bad? You tell him. SASUNARU LOVE. WARNING: CUSSING AND WELL ;) TRANSITIONS FIXED
1. Chapter 1

**IMPORTANT: **

** oooooOOOOOOooooo: FLASHBACK **

**AND A REGULAR LINE INDICATES A BREAK IN THE story**

* * *

**Part One: Libraries and Lazer-tag**

Math sucks.

No really, it does. What the hell does X have to do with anything, and then you put it next to a Y and some numbers and KABOOM it's a freaking graph. Naruto groaned, running his fingers through his hair as he stared at the worksheet in front of him."Be quiet." snarled a voice in the next row, Naruto glared at the back of Sasuke Uchiha's head, opening his mouth to make a comment back even louder than his groan. But before he could a poke in his shoulder from behind distracted Naruto, and considering he knew just whose finger it was didn't help.

"What?" Naruto turned to whisper at Sai who gave him a small smile that sent foreboding shudders running down his back.

"If you are having a hard time with the worksheet I could-"

"No, I don't like cheaters." Naruto snapped, trying to focus on the worksheet. "Leave me alone Sai."

"Okay." Sai whispered, the rest of his following snide comments drowned in the noise of the bell.

"Thank God!" Naruto beamed, shoving the worksheet into his backpack and flying out of the door before any of his classmate's asses could get out of their seat. Naruto had to be some kind of mutant or alien to have that kind of speed.

And when you considered that he was a freak already, it was pretty possible.

He was almost at the end of the hall when a distinctive head of pink hair made itself known in the sea of normal colors. "Sakura!" He through his hands up in a hugging gesture as he ran forward, attempting to trap her in a hug.

"Idiot!" Sakura growled, smacking him upside the head with a notebook before he was even a foot in front of her, "Naruto! What are you doing running around in a crowd of people? Are you trying to get in trouble?"

Naruto bit back the urge to point out that running in a crowd full of people was probably the best way not to get caught and simply mumbled, "Sorry Sakura."

"Let's go, come on." She urged in a softer tone, waving for him to follow her out of the door. Naruto followed behind, rubbing the bridge of his nose where the notebook had smacked the hardest.

When they got passed the huge crowd of people and were finally standing at a crosswalk waiting for the walk sign to blink, Sakura took the time to examine Naruto fully with critical eyes. Naruto noticed, checking his shirt and pants for stains. Nothing, no stains. He looked back up at her with a shrug, "What?"

"What's wrong with you?" Sakura put her hands on her hips, tilting her head to the side so that her pretty pink hair shimmered in the sunlight more. "You haven't tried to ask me out on a date once today, at lunch you barely ate your food, and don't even get me started on what happened in the library in English-language Arts- whatever we're supposed to call it now! So what's wrong?"

Naruto blushed at the mention of "the library incident" and decided that was probably not something he wanted to explain to Sakura of all people. "Nothings wrong Sakura, it's just tomorrow..."

"What-" Sakura paused in realization, a frown settled on her face. "Oh Naruto, I'm sorry I forgot."

Naruto flashed her a half-hearted smile, "It's okay."

Tomorrow was the anniversary of his parents death, he was only two when they went right over the edge of the cliff on a rainy day, break failure the police said. Which for Naruto was a shit excuse of an explanation. Naruto's lived with his older brother Kurama ever since.

"Well...lets do something this weekend!" Sakura pulled on her scheming face, hunting for something fun to do. Naruto tugged on her arm when the white walk sign flashed, and they made it all they way across the street before she blasted out, "I've got it!"

"What?" Naruto smiled despite his mood.

"Laser tag!" Sakura stated with an evil grin, the bracelets on her hand shook as she tugged a fist down in determination. "I want to beat that fat pigs stupid high score."

"Yeah!" Naruto pumped his fist with her, the two ignored the looks from passers by as they continued to look like crazy people, "We haven't done that in awhile!"

"EEE-I'm so excited." she jumped, pausing with a new determined emotion shuffling on her face, "We need a strategy, lets go."

Before Naruto could say anything, Sakura grabbed him and dragged him down the street.

oooooOOOOOOooooo

Look at the bastard.

Naruto glared at the bastard himself, as if following his own commands. Sasuke Uchiha used to be his friend, his best friend. But then things changed, a lot of things changed.

He gained Sakura, the girl he used to drool over, as a new best friend. He lost Kurama's respect. He fell into a really bad depression, which he still goes to therapy for, and in the end of it all where did that leave the bastard?

Naruto's heart fluttered as he stared at his ex-best friend.

He was trying to distinguish if the flutter came from the thought of Sasuke pushing him away or from they way that black hair framed his face while he was reading the book in front of him about Africa.

For a moment, Naruto entertained the thought of Sasuke being chased by starving lions and then was compelled by the same damn boys stupid action. Naruto watched Sasuke's tongue dart out of his mouth, coating his bottom lip in shimmering wet..."That's enough!" Naruto yelled, covering his ears and huddling against his chair.

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed from beside him with a concerned look, she leaned in, "What's wrong, you okay?"

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, meeting familiar black eyes instantly. Sasuke sneered at him with a "hn" before turning his head back to his book. "Y-Yeah...I'm fine."

And that was the stupid library incident.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Stay away from these area's here and here." Naruto tried to pay attention to what Sakura was saying as she jabbed her finger on her personal makeshift map of the laser-tag arena. "Shikamaru likes to target these areas and snipe out people."

"Right I remember from last time." Naruto nodded along, recalling the multiple shots that would drain him out the moment he even stepped foot in either of those areas.

"It would be nice if we could figure out where he hides." Sakura bit her lip in thought, calculating the probabilities.

"What..." Naruto started, drawing in his confidence as he pictured the layout of the arena. "What if he's at the highest part of the arena? The scoring area. Maybe he has Choji guarding it! And probably Neji."

"Hm...now that I think about it I never see Choji running around, and that's hard to miss because he's so big!" Sakura smiled at Naruto, "You're a genius!"

"Really?" Naruto smiled wider.

"Kind of." Sakura shrugged, he decided that was good enough for him. "Okay so all we have to handle is Tenten and Ino."

The words seemed to put a heavy cloud on their confidence. Sakura and Naruto eyed each other for a moment, determination setting in their eyes. Naruto smirked and pumped up his fist, "We're going to win!"

"Hell yeah!" Sakura agreed.

"Sakura Haruno, who are you talking to!"

"Shit!" Naruto jumped, running for Sakura's closet and scrambling to shut the door just in time. Sakura's Mom popped in just seconds after the door closed behind him.

"Sakura have you had that boy in here again?" Naruto covered his mouth and attempted to hide himself in Sakura's clothes.

"No! I was just thinking about...bowling this weekend and got a little too excited, sorry Mom!" Naruto glared at the belt buckle swinging back and forth inches from his face. A silent moment passed before Sakura's Mom's voice started again.

"Okay. And bowling Sakura? Isn't that...a little butch?" Naruto scowled, he hated this part of Sakura's life. She did so many things to try and girly herself up, but it didn't seem to matter to her Mom. It was never enough.

"Wha-No, I have a date!" Sakura actually sounded shocked, which he was sure was half-genuine. "Don't worry Mom, it's not another guy moment or anything."

"Okay." chimed her mom, "I want all the details of that date."

"Of course!" Naruto rolled his eyes, "Bye Mom! Be down in a minute to tell you all about it!"

Naruto slowly opened the closet door, Sakura stood at the door with her hand still on the knob, a dark look settled over her features. "Sakura..." Naruto frowned, she glanced at him, smiling softly.

"You've gotta go, I know. See you tomorrow with a cool plan!" She smiled the kind of smile that showed all her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, hiding them, he knew it was fake but ignored it.

"Kick ass." He whispered, leaning out of the window, rustling the bushes in her front yard as he fell out against the dirt and twigs.

The giggle he heard was satisfying.

* * *

"Did you have detention today?" Naruto heard the second he stepped through the front door. He flinched instantly, recognizing the seemingly toneless voice Kurama was using that was really an attempt to hide his anger.

"Uh, no. I was with Sakura." Naruto answered, walking down the hall and poking his head into the living room. Kurama was sprawled out on the couch, staring at the TV where various commercials were playing through.

"I see." Kurama answered, not looking at him.

"Was there something I missed?" Naruto reluctantly questioned, leaning against the side of the wall.

Kurama shifted on the couch, still not looking at him, and released a sigh. "Nope, just wondering where you were."

"Oh." Naruto shifted on his feet, glancing down the hall to the stairs, "I'm sorry I didn't call or anything..."

"It's alright, you're almost an adult." Kurama answered with a shrug.

Which meant that he should definitely worry about it and not forget to use his damn phone next time. But that was the last word they were going to have, so Naruto turned and made his way up the stairs toward his room.

Out of his one and only window he could see into Sakura's dining room window where she sat facing toward him, smiling into her dinner plate. There was a time when he'd sit here and swoon but now that he really knew her, he realized all he ever wanted in her was friendship.

And he got that.

He caught her green eyes staring up at his window and waved without thinking about how it was too dark in the room for her to see him anyway. Naruto laughed at himself, sinking into his bed and nuzzling his pillow.

And with that he drifted to sleep.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"What do you want for dinner?"

Naruto tore his eyes away from the window, shuffling around the textbooks and homework on his bed to face his brother who was leaning on the door with his hand resting on the knob. He shrugged with a smile, "I don't know! What do we have?"

"Well...I was thinking we could go out tonight and get ramen?" Kurama suggested with a smirk, nodding his head to the side and running a hand through the orange-red hair he had inherited from their mother.

"Yeah!" Naruto smiled, nodding, "That sounds awesome! When can we go?"

"In just a few hours." Kurama started to ease the door shut, "I still have some work to finish, but when I'm done we'll go."

"Well hurry up then!" Naruto called after him, relaxing into the pillows as the door shut. He resumed frowning outside of the window. It had been 64 days since Sasuke said they were no longer friends.

64 days.

For the most part, Naruto was pretty good at hiding the sadness that swelled up within him at the loss of his one and only friend. He smiled like he was supposed to. He laughed and joked and commented, all like he was supposed to.

But he didn't feel any of it.

Ramen was just food, substance. Stuff he was supposed to shove in his mouth and enjoy in abundance. Homework, he didn't even feel like trying. He knew he wasn't good enough to complete it anyway, why bother with it? Sleep was the only thing that was real, it was the only time he could think...the only time he wasn't thinking, remembering, being.

It was...peaceful.

A mess of pink hair caught his eye, and he followed it. Sakura Haruno, she was stomping her way through her back gate, passing by the dining room window in a whirl. Despite himself, Naruto found a smirk graced his features. She was so pretty, but she liked Sasuke not him. The thought of Sasuke wiped the smirk off his face.

And then he noticed that her face was wet.

Naruto found himself standing before his brain could even catch up with what was going on, but he decided to just go with it.

Because it felt right.

It was all he needed. Carefully, Naruto crept down the stairs, trying not to attract his brothers attention as he opened the front door and slipped out. Sakura was crying, that much was obvious, but why was she crying?

Some part of Naruto was upset to see it, and another part...another part was relieved. Sakura's a pretty girl, popular for the most part, intelligent, and just all around talented so it was nice to see that she could feel the pain he did. And then there was another part, that felt sick at himself for thinking that way.

But he decided to ignore them all, and just go with his gut.

He caught up with Sakura wandering down the sidewalk of their neighborhood, passing by the various houses in a mixed blur of nothing. Naruto started to jog to catch with her and called out, "Sakura!"

She halted and turned around for a brief second before resuming her fast pace.

"Sakura!" he called again.

"Not right now Naruto!" She yelled, increasing her pace.

"Sa-" and then Naruto thought better of it, he slowed down just a little bit, lagging behind her. The street lamps were turning on by the time she managed to reach what was apparently her destination, the neighborhood park. An hour had passed, enveloping them both in darkness as she sat down on the swing set and played with her feet in the rocks.

Naruto watched her for a moment, wondering if now was the time to approach, but it was now or never. "Sakura."

She looked over at him, he could barely tell in all the dark, but the faint moonlight aided him by illuminating her long pink hair as it moved. "What do you want Naruto?"

"I don't know." He answered truthfully, slowly approaching the swing set. " I guess...I'm wondering why you're so sad?"

"Why care?" Sakura accused him, kicking the rocks beneath her feet.

Naruto thought about it for a second, thought about Sakura and how she was, and how she feels, and suddenly he had the answer. "Want to know a secret?"

Her feet halted in the rocks, and he could feel her eyes on him again. "What?"

"I know what it's like to be sad." Naruto confessed, it came out as a whisper and his own voice surprised him with it's dryness.

"Everyone knows what it's like to be sad." Sakura answered, but her tone was slightly intrigued, yet skeptical.

"Yeah." Naruto replied looking up at the moon. "But I know what it's like to be so sad, that you don't even know if you're feeling anything else anymore."

They sat in silence for a moment, swinging around aimlessly.

"I don't see you with Sasuke anymore." Sakura commented suddenly, eyes still on the sky, "You two always used to be together, I always thought it was annoying but, now I just think it's wrong not to see you with him."

"Yeah well..." Naruto sighed, "Now he's the one who finds it annoying so..." he faded off into silence with a shrug.

"My Mom..." Sakura swallowed audibly, taking a deep breath before she continued, "I love her, and she means well, but sometimes she acts like...I'm just not who she wants me to be and she's afraid of it. Today, she found out I was playing lazer tag with Ino, and she flipped out."

"Flipped out?" Naruto questioned when Sakura didn't go any further.

"The threw away all my pants." Sakura sniffed, wiping her face, "All of my favorites too, because she said wearing more girl clothes would have a more positive effect on me, and I would start acting like a girl again."

"What a bitch." Naruto released without thinking, he gazed at Sakura with a flicker of fear but it dissipated by her laughter, and somehow he just found himself laughing along too, and feeling it.

"You want to know my secret?" Sakura whispered, staring up at the stars. "Sometimes I wish I were a boy, then I could do all the things I want to do."

Naruto nodded, he didn't know why but it seemed to comfort her enough and she smiled at him through the darkness. He mirrored the action, feeling something small but there.

Together they sat in the dark, hand in hand, staring up at the moon.

And they found each other.

oooooOOOOOOooooo

"I don't know why I let myself get dragged into these things."

"Shut-up Nara, you know you like it." Kiba smirked at Shikamaru from across the room, and Naruto laughed at them. Kiba only referred to Shikamaru by his last name during laser tag, because he wasn't a "friend anymore" but "an enemy" and therefore would receive "no mercy".

Shikamaru sent Kiba a small smirk before buckling his vest on, Kiba glared in response, knowing full well what that glare meant for him out in the arena. "He's going to have you annihilated." Naruto whispered in Kiba's ear with a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"Shut-up." Kiba growled in response, adjusting his vest.

Ino and Sakura had been doing this three years now, but there were latest additions. For the past two years it was just Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji against Sakura, Naruto, and Kiba. But then Hinata found out about the game and wanted to play, bringing along Shino- her boyfriend- and her cousin with her.

This made their teams odd.

But Neji fixed it by calling in his own girlfriend, Ten-Ten and then they were all evened out again. So as of this moment the current players were Team Sakura: Naruto, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata plus Team Ino: Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Neji, and Tenten.

And the war got even better.

"Alright, you guys know the rules." Said a lazy looking man wearing the uniform,he recognized them as regulars even if its been awhile, "Just go in, set up, and wait for the count-down."

Naruto followed Sakura through their door, and they quickly crowded around her waiting for instruction. "You all examined the plans right?" She glared at everyone, Kiba shuffled his feet in her stare but nodded along with the group. "Good, then let's try and beat Ino today! I'm sick and tired her giving me looks like she owns the damn arena!"

The countdown started and they all rushed to their perspective places.

Naruto discovered that him and Kiba were teaming up this time on the left side of the arena near their base, apparently to guard it. Naruto noted that Sakura probably anticipated that neither he nor Kiba had read the plans too much and just kind of grazed through it looking for their names.

He wasn't much of a reader.

"GO!" sounded all around them in a loud excited voice, Kiba and him swept their eyes left and right, watching out for the enemy. Minutes passed and they could hear Sakura and Hinata up ahead shooting and running around, trying to halt the enemy and reach Shikamaru together.

"Damn-it" Kiba growled, still looking around, "I should read the strategy next time so that I can get in on the action..."

"Yeah me too." Naruto agreed, also itching to run out and shoot a bunch of the opposing team players.

But neither of them dared to move and face Sakura's wrath.

Suddenly Naruto felt his vest buzzed and a simultaneous voice called from both their vests, "You've been shot!"

Naruto and Kiba whirled around, hunting for their shooter.

"You've been shot!"

"What the hell!" Kiba snarled.

"You've been shot!"

"I don't get it!" Naruto fumed, staring everywhere including their own base just feet above them.

"Dead." Sounded their vests, Naruto and Kiba frowned, grumbling.

"That was fun." They whirled around again to see Shikamaru resting casually against the top of the obstacle just feet from them, Naruto couldn't remember if that was against the rules or not but in this battle it really didn't matter.

Both of them glared as the other boy yawned and jumped down.

"Shi-Nara! What the hell?" Kiba bawled his fists, stomping his feet.

"You're right." Shikamaru confessed with a shrug before turning around and walking casually away, " I do like this game."

Naruto and Kiba gawked at his retreating form.

"Well fuck me!" Kiba exclaimed to the ceiling before rushing back to base. Naruto made a vow to get Shikamaru back in lazer tag by the end of the year or die trying.

In the end, they lost.

"The one time when I thought we would have them!" Sakura paced in front of her team, arms crossed and brain buzzing. They watched her move, back and forth, wondering if anyone was going to have the guts to say something.

Across the way, on the opposite table, Team Ino was celebrating another victory.

"Uhh..." braved Kiba with a nervous smile, "Can we join the others and get pizza now?" Sakura stared at him for a second before sighing.

"Yeah! Of course we can!" She replied, all of them instantly stood from the table to make their way over to Team Ino and order some damn pizza, but Sakura stopped them by talking some more. "By the way Kiba, do you mind doing me a favor and taking some pictures of me like we're on a date. I told my Mom I had a date today and she's going to want evidence."

Kiba shrugged, "No kissing and I'm good."

Sakura nodded, leading them toward Team Ino, with Ino herself standing at the head of the table with her hands on her hips and a smile plastered on her face. "How's it feel to lose for the 6th time in a row this year?"

"Shut it." Sakura glared crossing her arms and took a seat beside Kiba.

The rest of them chatted around the stormy Sakura, trying to ease the tension blooming between the two girls.

"What do you want on your pizza?" Choji smiled, patting his belly.

"I don't know...pepperoni and sausage?" Kiba shrugged, distracted by a familiar figure leaning against the end of the table. "Shino, what are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Shino repeated, glaring behind his sun glasses, "Now everyone notices me instead of in the arena when Shikamaru had you cornered."

"You were there?!" Naruto's mouth fell open in shock, everyone but Sakura glared at him and Shino grumbled into the table's surface.

"It's okay Shino." Hinata comforted him, offering a sip of her beverage. He took it and she smiled at him before answering Choji's earlier question. "I think we'll take a vegetarian pizza."

"Vegetarian?" Naruto gagged, wanting nothing to do with any of that, "Put me down for Canadian bacon Choji."

"You got it." Choji saluted him, typing the requests on his phone.

"Is that everyone?" Shikamaru threw a look at Sakura as he said this, and the table became highly aware that this was probably the first time he wasn't trying to nap after a game.

"No, you haven't ordered yet." Kiba pointed out with a snicker, "What do you want? Pineapple?" Kiba laughed while everyone shook their heads, but the comment seemed to rouse Sakura from her fuming stupor.

"Shut up!" She elbowed him hard in the ribs with a growl, he moaned and clutched his chest. Not daring to say anything more.

"That was pretty lame." Shikamaru pointed a finger at Kiba as if to rub salt in the wound, then he turned his finger toward Sakura, "What do you want to eat?"

"Supreme." The table hushed instantly.

"Seriously!" Ino stirred, leaning forward in her seat, "Sakura that has so many calories! You'll be dieting for months to work all that off!"

"Leave me alone." Sakura frowned, standing up, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Hinata immediately stood and took off after her, the rest of the table remained in their seats exchanging awkward stares. "Well..." Naruto stated, unable to keep up the silence, "That was weird."

"You call that weird? Naruto you're weird, that was just strange." Kiba taunted.

"What?" Naruto shook his head, not understanding.

"He's trying to be funny just ignore him." Shikamaru sympathized, turning toward Choji. "I'd rather be getting the pizza then sitting here participating in the conversation thats about to happen so lets just go."

"Hey!" Ino snarled after them, shaking a fist in their direction, "Don't think you won't be dragged into anything later!"

A "Yeah-yeah" reached their ears before the two disappeared into the crowd. And then there were six...Neji and Tenten who had been oddly silent since giving their orders seemed to be more eager for conversation.

"Maybe she's just bummed out? We should...let her play a game she can beat you at..." Ten-Ten then proceeded to have some kind of silent chick conversation with Ino from across the table. Kiba and Naruto turned toward each other with the same question playing on their tongues before they let it go.

"Fine!" Ino yelled suddenly, throwing her hands up dramatically and causing Naruto to jump, he quickly pretended like he didn't though. "I'll let her win something!"

Ten-Ten seemed satisfied with this and dropped the whole subject, throwing a glance in the direction of the girls bathrooms where Sakura and Hinata were heading toward them. Sakura sighed, sinking into her seat and throwing a small smile at the concerned Hinata.

"So, Sakura, I have a proposal for you." Ino started, folding her hands together in a business like manner. Sakura half-glared at her in interest as she continued, "If you can beat me at any of the games in the arcade down the street, I'll give you Shikamaru for the next game."

"What!" Kiba exclaimed, dis-heartened that his competition was now cut.

Ino rolled her eyes, "And I'll take Kiba instead, he doesn't pay attention anyway."

"Hey!" Kiba objected, but continued no further as he found his strength being sucked away by the glares of two irritated chicks at the same time. Kiba looked away, searching for Choji and Shikamaru in the crowd instead.

"Deal." Sakura sounded, holding out her hand. Ino released a small smile and took the hand, they shook and the deal was done.

"What'd we miss?" Choji asked as Shikamaru and him placed the pizza's on the table, everyone hurriedly reached for theirs to avoid answering.

"Nothing much." Kiba finally shrugged when they were all seated, and everyone around the table nodded in agreement.

No one bothered to mention that Shikamaru was just bartered like a slave.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"You brought this clown?!" Kiba protested, flinging a hand in Naruto's direction.

"Hey!" Naruto glared, bawling his hands into fists. Him and Kiba never really got along that well in the past.

"Shut up, we're odd enough as it is." Shikamaru commented from the other side of the room, Ino had a smug smile on her face as she stood beside him, obviously pleased with Sakura's new choice.

"Sakura." Kiba pleaded, but she only ignored him and gripped Naruto shoulder.

"Just ignore them." she whispered, patting his back lightly, "We'll show them right!"

"Yeah!" he smiled, feeling a little more confident. The sadness was still there, eating away at him, but he found that with Sakura it wasn't so hard to go to school anymore and sometimes he even found the motivation to do homework.

Even if he failed it anyway.

Naruto zoned out for most of the rules, Sakura had spent the whole dang morning drilling them into his head so its not like he was missing anything. He'd never played laser tag before but the way it made Sakura's eyes light up excited him, and he found himself more interested than ever.

Of course he was still kind of in trouble with Kurama for continuously ditching ramen dates to sneak out and hang out with Sakura at the park. So a part of him felt just a tad bit guilty that he was doing just that again at this very moment.

Kurama was probably looking for him everywhere.

"Go!" echoed through the arena and Naruto found himself stuck with Kiba of all people, surrounded by Ino and Choji from the other side of the barrier. Kiba growled from behind him, drawing Naruto's attention. The two locked eyes, challenging each other.

Naruto roared, diving out of the obstacle and shooting madly. Not far to his left, he could hear Kiba doing the same. He caught sight of Ino jogging in front of him, apparently dead, and turned to help Kiba with Choji.

The two circled the larger guy, alternating shots until the arena exclaimed "GAME OVER!" Naruto and Kiba relaxed, laughing together as they walked back to return their vests.

"We won!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping up and down in place with a piece of paper fluttering in her hand, "Yes!"

"Calm down." Ino grumbled as she approached with Shikamaru and Choji following close behind. "Let's just go and get a pizza."

"Sure thing pig." Sakura smiled, gliding out of the room and toward the tables. Naruto went to follow her when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You're not bad." Kiba smirked at him, releasing his shoulder to walk out of the door, but momentarily halted with a new thought on his mind, "But I'm still way better then you, weirdo."

Naruto only smiled after him, it was a start

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Go!" echoed through the arena and Naruto found himself stuck with Kiba of all people, surrounded by Ino and Choji from the other side of the barrier. Kiba growled from behind him, drawing Naruto's attention. The two locked eyes, challenging each other.

Naruto roared, diving out of the obstacle and shooting madly. Not far to his left, he could hear Kiba doing the same. He caught sight of Ino jogging in front of him, apparently dead, and turned to help Kiba with Choji.

The two circled the larger guy, alternating shots until the arena exclaimed "GAME OVER!" Naruto and Kiba relaxed, laughing together as they walked back to return their vests.

"We won!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping up and down in place with a piece of paper fluttering in her hand, "Yes!"

"Calm down." Ino grumbled as she approached with Shikamaru and Choji following close behind. "Let's just go and get a pizza."

"Sure thing pig." Sakura smiled, gliding out of the room and toward the tables. Naruto went to follow her when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You're not bad." Kiba smirked at him, releasing his shoulder to walk out of the door, but momentarily halted with a new thought on his mind, "But I'm still way better then you, weirdo."

Naruto only smiled after him, it was a start

"Go Sakura!" Naruto and Kiba roared, cheering on their team member as she faked shot at the screen in front of her with vigorous intent. Beside her, Ino was hunting deer as well, trying to get the highest points.

"Something about this just feels wrong." Shikamaru shook his head as he watched the girls virtual hunt, "I'm getting the feeling I should be worried here."

"It's the inner deer in you taking over." Kiba shook Shikamaru's shoulder with a teasing laugh, hollering right in his ear, "YEAH! GO FOR THE HEAD!"

And still, no one bothered to warn Shikamaru about the deal.

At the moment, as far as Shikamaru was concerned, they were just randomly enjoying their time at an arcade watching old rivals compete. Which was normal for them, kind of.

"YEAH!" Sakura, Kiba and Naruto roared as their final scores appeared on the screen. Sakura beat Ino by a margin of 4 points, but victory was victory! Ino turned to Shikamaru and sighed.

"Sorry Shikamaru." she looked away, well aware of the examining eyes now trained on her. Realization dawned on Shikamaru and he looked around them all with wide eyes.

"What did you just do to me?" He braced himself, Choji stood behind him as backup just in case they tried to strip him and make him run home naked...again. But that was Halloween, technically it doesn't count.

"Ino sold you to my team, in exchange for Kiba." Sakura explained, enjoying the look of shock that passed over his face. Kiba snickered.

"But just for one game." Ino clarified with a look at Sakura, "We made deal."

"Fine." Shikamaru sighed, "I guess I'll go home and prepare a whole new strategy, troublesome women, making deals." Everyone could tell that despite the bored tone and expression, he was actually a little excited to be dealing with a whole new set of team members to mess around with.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji took off with Tenten and Neji following close behind. Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Naruto decided to sit down and hang out some more first before going home.

"That went perfectly." Sakura purred, taking a long sip of her soda.

"Yeah who knew it would go so well!" Kiba agreed, resting against the back of his chair.

Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes, "You guys seriously never read the whole plan I give you, do you?"

"What?" Kiba questioned, squinting his eyebrows together. Naruto sat in the chair next to him in the same position.

"Plan B? In case we lose?" Sakura said, trying to help them recollect something. "I put orders for Hinata to comment about my lack of moral recently, and drop hint that if we had Shikamaru things would go much smoother on the course for us like it does for their team. Then after we lost, I pretended to be more upset than I actually was, and headed to the bathroom with Hinata. Tenten, being her natural self, would feel bad and try to make things better the way she always does. And things just kind of happened the way we were hoping for from there."

Naruto and Kiba stared at her dumbfounded.

"You're a genius." Naruto claimed, shaking his head, "Thats so awesome Sakura!"

"I know!" Sakura squealed in her seat, feeling the strivings of a temporary victory over her rival. "I just hope Ino doesn't find away around it, if she finds time to bother Shikamaru about it then things might go in the wrong direction."

"So?" Kiba shrugged with a sly glance at Naruto, "Let's make sure she doesn't have a chance. Still got that hair dye?"

"Yeah!" Naruto smiled, trying to hide the fact that he didn't really want to use it.

"Good." Kiba stated, "Buy more of it, we're going to need a lot."

"Well I think it's time we head back home now." Hinata pipped up, clearly uncomfortable with the plotting against her friends most precious asset. "Bye!"

"Bye!" they called after her and Shino, standing to go home to.

"Oh Kiba!" Sakura called running around the table and looping an arm around his waist, "Say cheese!"

And she snapped her evidence.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo  
**

"Do I have to go?" A 5 year old Naruto whined at his brother, he pulled back, trying to stall the inevitable fate of a long day at the mall playground where no one would play with him because he was "weird" whatever that meant.

"Naruto, come on, it'll be fun. My friend brought his little brother along and you two are almost the same age." Kurama sighed, despite the help received from old friends; he was tired from working part time and finishing college , all while trying to take care of Naruto.

And pissed at his parents for being stupid and leaving him to deal with it all.

"He's not going to like me." Naruto insisted, feet planted firmly in the ground.

"You don't know that now come on." Naruto didn't move, "If you don't then I'll just leave you here alone and go by myself."

Naruto frowned, considering the threat, and finally moved at a snails pace. "I don't like the mall..." he grumbled.

Kurama ignored him.

By the time they reached the playground,kids were swarming on the equipment and Kurama could barely spot his friend Itachi in the crowd, trying to calm his own little brother who seemed to be throwing a temper tantrum.

At least he wasn't the only one dealing with it.

"Is that him?" Naruto piped up with a slight amusement showing on his face, "He looks like a baby."

"Sasuke has a temper." Kurama admitted, remembering an embarrassing incident in the toy aisle last week when he went grocery shopping with Itachi while Naruto was at school, "And he hasn't been feeling well all week, so that hasn't helped. Just be nice."

"Okay." Naruto smiled, the devious glint in his eyes shimmering with an obvious hint that he might not be that nice to the poor irritated Sasuke. Kurama just sighed and shook his head, waving Itachi over.

Both brothers watched as Itachi skillfully dragged an upset Sasuke across the playground with the patience of a saint. Enduring every kick to the back of his kneecaps, and the biting on the side of his arm.

"Hey." Itachi greeted simply with a nod, he turned to Naruto and smirked slightly, "You're getting big."

"Really?!" Naruto beamed, flattered. Everyone at school said he was short, and would probably never grow. Though that was ridiculous.

"Naruto, this is Sasuke." Prompted Kurama, nudging Naruto directly in front of the other boy.

Sasuke glared at him through wet angry streaming tears, still firmly biting on the side of Itachi's arm.(1) A blush tinted his cheeks as Naruto giggled at him. "You're a baby."

Kurama cringed in silence, praying as Sasuke released his brother's hand and arm completely and stood with his fists balled glaring at Naruto. "I'm not a baby!"

"You are! You're a big baby!" Naruto giggled more.

"You're stupid!" Sasuke shouted, shoving him.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted back, shoving Sasuke as well.

And then they lunged at each other, kicking, slapping, and yelling incoherently. Itachi and Kurama scrambled to pull them apart and headed for a nearby empty table. Another embarrassing moment was added to their record as everyone stared and complained at them.

"Sasuke." Itachi stared at his brother with a blank face, "That was not the way to act."

Sasuke frowned at him, his face scrunching up in a threat to burst into tears at his brothers disappointment. But with Naruto there, he held it in.

"Naruto, I told you to be nice." Kurama scolded with a pointed look that meant no ramen for a week at least.

"But he was being a baby!" Naruto protested, pointing a finger at Sasuke, "I came here to play remember? I'm not playing with a baby!"

"Hn." Sasuke emitted slowly, turning his head up and away from Naruto, clearly not impressed. His nose hurt and his throat was itchy, its not like he wanted to play with the blonde kid in the first place.

"Be nice." Both brothers echoed, giving each other sympathetic looks. They were really counting on this meeting working out for the best. Sasuke for the most part was pretty friendless, unless you counted all the little girls who wanted to hold his hand at recess, where he spent a lot of time kicking the crap out of people who annoyed him. And Naruto? Naruto was friendless too, mostly because he spent a great deal of time playing pranks and teasing others without thinking about the negative effects.

Kurama and Itachi were looking for a way out of the chaos that was teacher conferences and play time disasters.

"How about we go see a movie?" Itachi suggested to Kurama, knowing full well that Sasuke had been secretly curious about the new animated movie involving some robots or something like that.

"Sure." Kurama giving a warning look to Naruto.

"Fine." Naruto looked away, crossing his arms. He hated the movies, he always had to sit still, half the movies were boring anyway! It's not like it was fun.

But all four of them found themselves seated in the movie theater anyway. Kurama and Itachi elected to sit on the outside of the group on either end with their brothers in the middle, this way they were less likely to annoy anyone but each other which was preferable.

"Robots are boring." Naruto whined, swinging his legs back and forth.

"Are not." Sasuke glared, earning a chuckle from his brother. Sasuke blushed a bit but quickly found himself too busy trying to argue with Naruto.

"Are to. They're all ugly, and blocky, and they shoot lasers out of their eyes which is stupid." Was Naruto's logical argument.

"You're stupid!" Sasuke repeated, "Robots would destroy you."

"Nu-uh" Naruto shook his head, a smile printed on his face. "I'm way cooler than robots, I could just ride them on their backs and then turn them off! I'd be pretty easy I think!"

Sasuke stared at Naruto as if considering how right the blonde could be about that, but also trying to figure out something that would counter. "How?"

"How would I get on it's back?" Naruto questioned, Sasuke nodded. "I don't know, probably just jump on there or something."

"Stu-" Itachi cut Sasuke off with a hush, pointing to the screen where the movie was starting. Naruto followed by starting a silent competition for the armrest between them that lasted for the first thirty minutes of the movie.

Then they both got too interested to remember to bother each other.

"That was so cool!" Naruto claimed to the heavens as they exited the theatre, Sasuke followed behind with a satisfied smirk. Naruto noticed, and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke. "That doesn't mean I agree with you!"

"Dobe." Sasuke casually walked past him with a self-satisfied look.

"A what?" Naruto questioned, spending the whole way to the parking lot trying to get Sasuke to answer him. Itachi and Kurama just followed with a shared look of victory. Both hoping things would be easier from then on.

And they were, for a time.

oooooOOOOOOooooo

"Are you serious!" Naruto yelled down the hallway in an outrage. He was walking toward the Library where his English class was taking place again today, Kiba who had English last period was filling in Naruto on all the gruesome details of their new group project.

"It was horrible, I got paired up with Gaara of all people!" Kiba shuddered, looking pale, "I can't even talk to him without fighting the urge to piss my pants."

"Yeah but you've got two other group members right, so at least you don't have to work with him alone." Naruto patted Kiba on the back just as the Library doors came into view.

"See ya!" Kiba waved him off, turning right back around to run.

"Bye!" Naruto waved, calling after him, "Don't let Gaara bite!"

"Shut-up!" echoed down the hall as Naruto entered the library laughing. His whole class stared at him with strange looks as he walked up to his teacher who was standing with a bucket of sticks in her hands. She shook it at him and he reluctantly pulled one out.

Purple.

Please have Sakura, please have Sakura, please have Sakura. Naruto opened his eyes and stared at the table with the purple colored paper taped to the side of it. Shit.

Sai waved at him with a friendly smile, Sakura threw him a sympathetic look, and he noticed with a sigh of relief that they were missing a person. As he walked to the table, he found himself looking around and noticed that there was another group missing a person and Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

Naruto shook his head, wondering why he even bothered to notice anymore.

"Alright, class has started." The teacher announced as if everyone in the room hadn't just been secretly checking the time on their phones under the table. She was a blonde lady with glasses that made her eyes look huge, Naruto was distracted by their size as she began to pass out papers. He was barely listening to the words coming out of her mouth. "I'm sorry I was absent yesterday, I already talked with the other classes and pushed back the due date on this project by one day just to be fair, so no one object to the date on the paper-"

The loud sound of the library doors opening drew the classes attention away from the sheets of paper now sitting in front of them. Sasuke entered, closely followed by a taller guy with orange-ish hair. "We had gym." Sasuke supplied as a short answer as he held out a slip of paper to the teacher. She accepted it and picked up her little tin of sticks again.

Naruto watched as Sasuke brushed his hand against the sticks, realizing that there were two group openings and two people left in the class.

What if Sasuke was put in their group?

He swallowed, practically feeling Sakura's hopeful stare laser beaming passed the side of his neck. She still liked Sasuke, everyone knew it.

Yellow.

The color he pulled out was yellow.

Naruto breathed again, torn between relief and the outstanding let down of disappointment. The orange-haired guy automatically walked over to their table, ignoring everyone around him like they were all nothing.

"Alright, as I was saying..." The teacher continued, " You're group project will be to present a powerpoint presentation, with all groups speaking, on rhetorical devices. Now-"

Naruto zoned out, he was busy examining the orange haired guy that came in with Sasuke. The guy had pulled out a notebook and was doodling animals around the border, Naruto watched an eagle form from the pen with fascination. He was better then Sai, Naruto determined.

Though he barely looked at the stuff She did anyway.

"So..." Sakura started, snapping for Naruto's attention. Some of the other groups were already heading around the library looking for books. He avoided looking in the direction of the yellow table, just in case. "What's your name?"

The orange haired guy stopped drawing and stared at her, "Jugo."

"Hi, Jugo, my name is Sakura." She pointed to herself and then at Naruto and Sai, "And this is Naruto and Sai."

"You're good at drawing animals." Sai pointed out, examining Jugo's notebook page with the same interest Naruto had. Jugo closed the notebook and placed it back into his backpack, the rest of the table received the clear message.

Well, except for Sai who didn't seem to care. "It must be-"

"What are we going to do?" Sakura interrupted what was probably an oncoming rude comment. She picked up the paper and examined it, "What about...fairy tales?! We could do that?"

The table stared at her and she fumbled to explain.

"Well the project is to pick a book with a theme and pull rhetorical devices from it. Fairy tales would fit right?" Sakura frowned, obviously not totally happy with her own idea.

"This whole project sounds stupid." Naruto commented, staring down at the paper without really reading it. "Does that mean I could pick something random like, I don't know, sports or something? And try to pull stuff from that?"

"Well..." Sakura's face twisted and she punched the table, "Damn-it this is stupid!"

Frustration consumed the table and Naruto was now feeling the full burn of Kiba's complaints earlier. This is crazy.

"Book with a theme." Sai repeated to the air, "Doesn't every book have a theme Sakura? How to make friends, or how to talk to people?"

"You would read books like that..." Naruto glared at him, Sai only smiled in response. "You know those books don't really teach you anything right?"

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded him with a look, Naruto rolled his eyes and looked back down at the paper. She took the opportunity to continue, "How about we just look around the library and see if we find anything interesting? When we do, we come back to the table with it and ten minutes before the bell we try to figure out which one we want to use and check it out?"

Everyone agreed to her proposal by standing up and wandering off.

Stupid, this whole damn thing was stupid. Naruto felt himself being overwhelmed by the frustration, trust his stupid english teacher to come up with something like this! He didn't get it? It was just as bad as the time they had to make a comic strip on Sa-Sai-Satie- something that started with an S! **(2)**

Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted all too familiar black hair bouncing nearby and increased his pace toward the back of the library. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was going and soon found himself in the very back corner of the library without anyone else around. Dictionaries and various other resource books surrounded him, Naruto stared at all the titles absent-mindedly.

Sasuke was stupid.

Why the hell did he have to have any classes with the asshole in the first place? Couldn't God just give him a break, wave a magic wand or something! Unable to contain it anymore, Naruto kicked the bookcase in front of him.

And, in his usual clumsy fashion, fell to the floor.

Naruto groaned, holding his foot, "Damn bookcase!" he accused, he opened his eyes and spotted an untitled book in the bottom corner, snuggled between two books about mockingbirds. He figured it was probably another book about mockingbirds, but reached and pulled it out anyway.

The book was leather bound, and thick. Naruto opened it and revealed notebook pages filled with different kinds of handwriting scattered around the page.

_I hate Mr. Haruno..._ **PEOPLE ARE SO STUPID!** _I feel invisible._ **_Sometimes I cut myself..._** _I'm in love with my bestfriend._ **I hate my Mom, but I pretend I don't.** **My smile isn't real.** _**NO ONE LISTENS!**_ I can't do it anymore, tomorrow it all stops for good. **_I wish someone saw me when he held me down, well they all see me now, and it hurts._** _I fart in the corner of the back room of math and make it seem like its the girl who sits next to me._

Naruto laughed, and then frowned again. These seemed like secrets? And Sakura's dad? according to the date at the top, the book was at least seven years old, so what would he be doing in here? It's not like he was a teacher.

What if he did something bad? "Naruto!"

Shit, Sakura! Naruto shoved the book back in its place and scrambled to his feet. "Naruto!" her voice called again, he pressed himself to the side of the bookshelf and held his breath. It didn't seem appealing to be caught by her right at this moment, not when he was just imagining her Dad doing horrible stuff.

"Naruto!" came another call and then the bell rang, he heard her footsteps retreat and slide back down on the floor in relief. Naruto reached for the book again and ran his hands over the cover.

Just what the hell was this?

* * *

**1. IF SOMEONE COULD DRAW THAT I THINK IT WOULD BE SO CUTE**

**2. Satire, Naruto means Satire (I REALLY hope im spelling that right XD) **

**SO hello! This is my first fic in awhile, and I was just trying it out for now. As for the format, I hope you can follow, if not I'll try to work something out. If you have any suggestions or ideas of how I could format it better please share :) **

**Also I'm having a hard fucking time with the stupid damn alternate page breaks here, fucking fanfiction idk what ur doing!**

**Also if you're hear to tell me that I'm sick and gays are going to hell then save it, I've gotten those reviews twice already (and its the first one every damn time). **

**OKAY! REview!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two: Valentines and Vultures**

The questions plagued him.

Should he take it? Or leave it here? Would that be fair? What if other peoples use or read the book? Naruto stared at the book as he considered all the questions and made the silent decision of just keeping it here.

Shit! Naruto jumped up, he had completely forgotten about Math! Luckily no one touched his backpack and it remained leaned up against the table. He snatched it and hurried out of the Library, jogging up four staircases to reach his next class. The first thing the teacher said the moment he opened to door was, "Late pass." and she pointed out the door.

"Seriously!" He complained, dropping his stuff off at his desk anyway. Naruto jogged all the way back down the four staircases and toward the office which was right next to the library. A line of students occupied the counter, and he recognized two very familiar faces.

Kiba and...Sasuke.

Naruto went to stand with Kiba, who was conveniently at the end of the line, and tried not to stare too hard at the back of Sasuke's head who was just four people ahead. "You were right, English sucked ass."

"Right?" Kiba nodded with a shudder, "Imagine trying to figure that crap out while working with Gaara."

"The project doesn't make any sense anyway, when the hell am I going to use a rhetorical device in my life?" Naruto continued, trying to focus on the conversation.

"Hey there sexy, I noticed you body language is foreshadowing my face in your chest." Kiba winked with a laugh, Naruto joined in.

"I don't know if that makes any sense but the way you said it was kinda funny you know?" Naruto laughed harder as Kiba frowned.

"You're right." Naruto watched as Kiba seemed to be seriously thinking of another way to phrase his joke, "Okay how about this? Hey there sexy, I noticed your breasts are like mountains and that gold clip keeping your shirt together is symbolism for...my face?"

"Wow!" Naruto laughed harder, clutching his sides.

"Damn! I'm going to be thinking about this all day!" Kiba exclaimed, causing almost everyone in line to turn around. Meaning everyone but Sasuke who seemed determined not to turn around for anything.

"Maybe Shikamaru can help, why don't you try bouncing your ideas off him?" Naruto suggested with an evil smirk, Kiba smirked back and pulled out his phone, thinking and typing stuff down with the occasional input from Naruto. Both of them enjoyed the pleading texts they received in return, they would probably pay for this later but it was worth it.

By the time they made it to the front, it was ten minutes until the bell rang.

The lady just waved them away, her hand hurt way too much to be bothered with signing tardy passes they wouldn't even need. "So why were you tardy?" Naruto quizzed Kiba, knowing for a fact that his classes for the end of the day were side by side.

"Are you kidding? I just needed a break before tomorrow, plus in the office you don't have to hear the stupid announcement." Kiba shrugged, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"What announcement?" as if on cue, the intercom crackled to life and a familiar sickeningly energetic voice spoke.

"Valentines day is tomorrow ladies and gentlemen!" The voice announced, Naruto groaned into his palms, how did he forget?! Tomorrow was the dreaded V-Day, much akin to D-Day but with way more war. "So don't forget to bring a gift for your valentine! Chocolates and-"

Naruto drowned the voice out with the aid of Shikamaru's text messages to Kiba which were growing more and more annoyed with each reply. Both of them were lost in laughter for a while that quickly died away at the sight of Shikamaru's last message:

_It's on._

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Sasuke! Wait for me!" called an annoying voice after Sasuke and Naruto as they treaded down the hall on their first day of seventh grade. Well, it was more annoying to Sasuke and exciting to Naruto, but still.

"Sakura!" Naruto greeted her with a wave, she sent him a look and turned her full attention to Sasuke.

"Hey! I saw that we have history together." Sakura smiled at him, hands behind her back, Naruto frowned at Sasuke. It was the one class he didn't have with his best friend, did that mean Sakura sat next to him instead of Naruto?

"Hn." Sasuke grunted looking everywhere but her, he grabbed Naruto's arm and tugged him toward their next class, ignoring Sakura's talking as he strolled down the hall dragging Naruto behind him.

"Sasuke!" She called after him, he increased their pace until they were in the half-safety of the classroom and shoved Naruto into the seat next to his.

"That was rude." Naruto frowned, not normally one to complain about Sasuke's blunt temper. But this was different, he liked Sakura. She was pretty and smart, she deserved more.

Sasuke stared at him for a moment before turning to face the board."I don't care."

oooooOOOOOOooooo

The alarm was even more persistent than usual.

Naruto picked up the damn thing and threw it across the room where it collided with a large bean bag strategically placed for that very reason. He groaned to the ceiling, today was V-Day, the worst commercial holiday in existence.

At least for forever alone people like him.

Eventually his feet found the floor and carried him to the bathroom, he brushed his teeth and tried to block the remembered noise of squealing fangirls that was a part of his V-Day adventures for the past few years P.T.S (Prior To Sakura). Of course it still was part of the V-Day only now he could avoid it more easily.

Suck on that Sasuke!

The first thing Naruto noticed when he reached the bottom of the stairs was a pink sticky note plastered on the doorknob, he ripped it off and read: Not going to be home today, order pizza-K.

Sweet, home alone. Maybe Sakura could sneak over or something and hang out. They could both complain about how useless their love lives were. Naruto laughed at the thought as he opened the door.

And quickly slammed it shut.

Shit, what was he doing here! Naruto peeked out of the window nearby and confirmed that yes, that was Sai standing on the sidewalk in front of his house holding a bouquet of roses at 6:30 in the morning.

It's okay, he was going to get through this! He could go through-oh no matter what way he went he'd have to pass by Sai eventually. Groaning, Naruto braced himself and opened the door again. Sai plastered on a smile and held out the roses. "Naruto I-"

"Okay bye Sai!" Naruto interrupted and took off in a sprint down the street, Sakura was already waiting for him at their bus stop. He didn't like that knowing smirk on her face, and beat her to her own question, "That was terrible."

"So he's still standing there?" Sakura questioned, one hand on her hip.

"Yeah! How long has he been there?" She shrugged, shaking her head. "Great."

"Don't worry about it! I'm sure it will all be fine." Sakura comforted him just as the bus came flying towards them.

He hoped it really would be.

* * *

"What did you get so far?" Sakura flipped her hair, proudly displaying her large pile of chocolates and flowers from friends and anonymous people.

"Well let's see here..." Ino dug into her backpack and made an expression of fake surprise before dumping the full contents of her backpack on the table and revealing a pile at least twice as big as Sakura's. "Oh wow, I guess I got a lot huh?"

"Shut-up." Sakura growled, snapping her school lunch style pizza crust in half with one fist. Naruto and Kiba scooted slightly away from her and looked down at their own piles. Naruto noticed immediately his was the smallest in the group, made up of a two boxes of chocolates- one anonymous and another from Hinata who gave one to everyone- a stuffed animal that Sakura surprised him with on the bus of a panda hugging a heart that read "Best Friend Ever" (he thanked her for the girly gift with genuine pride),and there were a few lollipops and one cupcake, which he decided to eat right now.

"SASUKE!" the cafeteria roared, Ino and Sakura perked up immediately and the rest of the table ignored them. Shikamaru pointedly did not look at Ino and pointed at Naruto's stack.

"I'll trade you a cupcake for the lollipop." Naruto beamed, sliding his candy over and heartily accepting the cupcake, which he ate in practically one bite. "So have you seen Sai today? He was absent in art."

Naruto nearly choked on his cupcake, flailing his arms around until it slid down his throat. He looked into Shikamaru's amused dark eyes and chuckled nervously. "I-uh-saw him earlier."

"Where?" Shikamaru inquired, son of a bitch! What the hell possessed him to fuck with Shikamaru the day before V-Day?! From the glint in his eyes, one would think he was the one who gave Sai the idea in the first place.

"In front of my house..." Naruto mumbled, defeated as Shikamaru openly laughed at him. "Shut-up! It's not like I lead him on or anything!"

"What?" Kiba snorted, Sakura and Ino had both stood up with determination long ago, everything was competition these days. "No offense, but you kind of do lead him on."

"Wha-how!" Naruto outraged, his eyes darting in-between Shikamaru and Kiba.

"You flirt with him." Shikamaru declared with a shrug, unwrapping his lollipop. "I've seen you do it before, you flirt a lot actually." Kiba nodded in agreement.

"When?" Naruto defended, honestly not recalling a time when he did.

"In the halls sometimes." Shikamaru held up a finger, counting with the lollipop settled on the side of his mouth, "Last year in gym sometimes."

"Don't forget Math, that was last year to." Kiba interjected, shifting through his own pile of goodies, "I remember because that was the day before our first round of lazer-tag together and I was trying to figure out what kind of guy you were."

"There was also the first day of school this year in the morning." Shikamaru held up another finger to his count and stared at Naruto with a shrug, "There's tons more, and that's just counting Sai. I'm more than sure you flirt with me at least five times a day on average."

"Well, what am I doing?" Naruto leaned in, now seriously concerned, "Because whatever it is, I swear I don't know I'm doing it."

"I don't know." Kiba shrugged, settling on a box of chocolates, "It's like how you act and your tone of voice."

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded, waving the lollipop around, "Also at Ino's party you sat in his lap and proclaimed yourself pumpkin king, that lasted about forty-five minutes."

"Oh God." Naruto blushed, that was the only thing he did remember. It was the most embarrassing moment of his life, pictures were taken, posted, and hung forever in his life. The worst thing about it was, no one even knew about what happened precisely thirty minutes after that in Ino's upstairs bathroom.

But he was drunk and a little high, do sexual experiences really count then?

Naruto frowned into his pile of chocolates, was it possible that he'd been leading Sai on without realizing it? No, wait, huh? Oh man! Naruto groaned and buried his head in his arms. Kiba patted him on the back. "Its okay, maybe now that you know about it you can correct it?"

"I don't know about that." Shikamaru mused, Naruto glared at him but before he could retort Ino and Sakura caught their attention. Both girls sat down with slightly messed up hair and rumpled clothes.

"That was...chaos." Ino described staring down at her gifts in a daze. Sakura nodded along without a word.

"Dang, how did you put up with it all those years Naruto?" Kiba blurted, Sakura snapped out of it and whacked him over the head.

"Don't just speak without thinking!" She lectured, shooting Naruto a sympathetic look. He gave her a small smile to let her know that it was fine, none of it bothered him. Well, the truth was the only part of the whole conversation that bothered him was probably the obvious indications that Sasuke's fan club had grown to immense levels and Naruto wouldn't be able to answer the question anymore if he tried.

He found that he barely remembered those days anymore.

For no apparent reason at all, the book from yesterday slid into his mind. Naruto took one look at all his friends, now absorbed in some conversation, and slipped away opting to skip History and just hide out in the library until English.

He arrived just as the bell sounded, which gave him just enough room to squeeze past the crowd exiting the library and causally stride toward the back of the library where the little book of secrets was held.

Naruto set his backpack down against the bookcase and sprawled himself out on the floor with the book in hand. The most recent entries would be further along right? He flipped until he saw blank pages and the proceeded to read backwards.

**I kissed Rock Lee behind the bleachers._ English is a pain in the ass!_** _Sometimes I stay up at night wondering if I'm really alive or if this is all just a vivid dream._ I wish my parents would die for what they do to my brother. **_I'm gay and in love with the gym teacher..._**

Naruto shuddered at the last scribble, a piece of him that wasn't puking was dying to know who would have a crush on Coach Guy of all people. He scanned the various writings littering the page, turning some more until he got one full paragraph that remained mysteriously undisturbed.

_**My homeroom teacher is sexually molesting me. I haven't told anyone. My mom already has enough on her plate, and my sister's always so busy. My friends are all gone, everyone is either at a different school or moved far I also think I can fix it, because I'm supposed to be a man now right? I just don't know how. -A More Troubled than Usual Freshman**_

Naruto looked at the date at the top and froze when he realized that this person was in his graduating class. Did they still go here? What happened? What teacher was it? The book felt heavier in his hands now as the weight of the secret held him and he knew now why no one else dared to write on the page.

A terrible thing happened in these walls.

Naruto snapped the book shut and returned it to his hiding place. He stared at the spine with new understanding of it's role in the library, as secret keeper it held the most amazing and frightening power in all the school and everyone was helpless to it's power.

With a chuckle, Naruto thought about how that would once would have reminded him of Sasuke.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Sasuke take my chocolate!" "No mine!" "I made mine sugar free!"

Naruto found himself squished against the crowd of girls in the hall as he attempted to make it to class. He hated V-day, not only did Sasuke get all the attention but he was so busy with it he didn't have time to even hang out with Naruto at lunch.

A familiar show of pink hair flashed at him in the pile, "Sakura!"

"Sasuke take my chocolate!" She yelled, a determined look on her face as she ignored Naruto. The blonde pouted at the display, he would never understand why she was doing this, she wasn't like the other girls.

He could just tell.

Naruto was five minutes earlier to his class then usual, Iruka smirked at him from the teachers desk. "Right on time! I never thought I'd see the day."

"Yeah well, happy Valentines day." Naruto drawled, plopping into his seat in the very front row. Six minutes later a panting Sasuke pried the door open and raced in the room for his seat next to Naruto. Iruka took one look at his flushed face, messed up clothes, and glaring eyes before deciding to leave Sasuke alone for the day.

"I kind of took notes if you want them?" Naruto mumbled, scribbling on the side of his notebook paper.

Sasuke looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Hn.", and slowly slid a box of chocolates onto Naruto's desk. It was a red one, with a darker shade of red for a bow. He picked it up and opened it, pieces of white and dark chocolates smiled up at him.

"These from your savage fangirls?" Naruto shook the box at Sasuke, who pretended not to hear him and focused on absorbing the notes on the board.

Well at least he had something this year.

oooooOOOOOOooooo

When the last bell sounded rain had chosen that exact moment to cry huge big fat droplets of rain all over everyone. Naruto watched from his bus seat, amused by all the girls running toward vehicles for their lives.

Apparently clouds get upset when you don't give them chocolate too.

"Today sucked." announced Sakura, filling the spot next to Naruto, "Some kid named Rock Lee claimed to love me today, and filled my locker with chocolates."

Naruto laughed at her, remembering one of the confessions in the book of secrets, "Man that's crazy, maybe he's your stalker from last year?"

"Don't even joke about that!" Sakura warned, opening a box of chocolates and shoving one in her mouth before the bus driver could catch on. "That was chaos! I never thought it would stop!"

"Any other confessions?" Naruto asked, taking a chocolate from her box.

"No not today, but there were a lot of anonymous chocolates left on my desk every class. Next year I'm going to have to bring trash bags to carry them all." Sakura complained, rubbing her arms, "You want some of my chocolates? I'm not eating all of this."

"Sure!" Naruto beamed taking a few-about 20- boxes. "Do you think you beat Ino?"

"Maybe." Sakura narrowed her eyes, "I won't know until I get home and call her with the final count. "

"Oh that reminds me, Kurama isn't coming home until late at night. He gave me money for pizza if you want to come over and hang out" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at her, earning a playful punch.

"Sure I just have to go home and count the gifts first." Sakura beamed.

The rest of the bus ride was spent complaining about teachers and assignments, the rain had lightened up and by the time Naruto and Sakura got off at their stop it had ceased to drizzle even a little bit. Naruto celebrated this by splashing in the puddles.

"Are you crazy?!" Sakura accused, dodging a splash.

"What? I'm going home anyway!" Naruto laughed, hoppin into another puddle. She rolled her eyes and suddenly stopped in place with a shocked look on her face. Naruto gawked at her, "What?"

"Naruto, look." She frowned, pointing. Sai was still in front of his stupid house, holding a now drenched dozen roses. Guilt pulled at him for a second as memories from lunch filled his head. Damn, he never meant to lead him on, especially this badly. "I'll go to my house,good luck Naruto!"

He watched Sakura run to her house and sighed, time to deal with Sai.

"Naruto." Sai greeted him, holding out the flowers, water poured from their packaging. Sai sneezed, Naruto looked up at the sky with a mental complaint to God and could have sworn he saw vultures flying over Sai's head. "I tried to tell you this morning that I made a promise not to leave this spot until you accepted the flowers from me."

"What? Why?!" Naruto shook his head, "Are you fucking crazy!"

"I saw a man in a movie do it." Sai answered, sneezing again.

"And now you're sick!" Naruto frowned, gesturing towards Sai's soaked clothes. Sai held the flowers out towards him more and Naruto reluctantly accepted them.

"I'll walk home now." Sai announced, turning around. Guilt throbbed in Naruto's stomach once again.

"Wait! Sai-" Sai turned around and looked at Naruto shuffling his feet. "You can come in and get cleaned up okay? But you have to leave when Sakura comes over." Naruto offered, heading for the front door. He listened to the sound of Sai's shoes squeaking behind him and breathed a sigh of relief.

Damn Kiba. Damn Shikamaru.

* * *

**I hope this chapter was better than the last, OMG SO FRUSTRATING!**

**Also I've update the flashbacks :P**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is a little short, but I designed it that way because some chapters get pretty dang long. So it's a break for me and you!**

**Also, I'll try to make the flashbacks more clear from now on, as usual if there are any suggestions you have for me review and let me know, I'll try it out!**

* * *

**Part Three: Animals and Awkwardness**

Was there something on his face?

Naruto rubbed at his cheeks and looked at his hands, nothing. So then why was that orange haired guy, Jugo, staring at him like that? He shifted in his seat, trying to ignore the prying eyes shifting on him. What was the guys problem?

"Are you hearing a word of what I'm saying?!" Sakura snapped at him, she was more irritated than usual after her phone call with Ino on V-Day and things still hadn't simmered down. "Nevermind! You guys just do whatever! I'll work on the project myself!"

She looked at them expectantly for a moment, as if they were all going to suddenly jump up to help her, but none of them moved or said a word. Sakura huffed at them and pulled the large book of fairy-tales from the middle of the table closer to her.

"Can I come over again?" Sai asked out of nowhere, apparently not sensing the need for silence. Naruto hesitated, a blush settling on his cheeks as he glanced at Sakura for any signs of oncoming death. Nothing. "Naruto, can I come over again?"

"I heard you the first time Sai." Naruto sighed, rubbing his forehead. Those eyes were staring harder than before it seemed. "I don't- no you can't. That was just a one time thing."

"What did I do?" Naruto groaned, trying to ignore the eyes still on him. "I did everything the book-"

"Shut up about the damn book!" All eyes turned on Naruto with a hissing "shh" erupting from every mouth in the room. They just didn't understand what it was like to have an unwanted flashback of someone who likes you trying to shove thier tongue down your throat-naked. "Just leave me alone Sai."

"Whatever you want dickless." Sai chided with a smile before reaching for his drawing pad to doodle obscene animals. Jugo seemed distracted for a moment by his fellow artists work and Naruto managed to take the time to get himself in control.

Unfortunately the time brought something very unwanted to his attention.

From across the room blue eyes locked into black, and Naruto realized in that moment that Sasuke was staring at him. Was there something stuck on him? Did it say look at me until I go fucking crazy?

Sasuke broke eye-contact and looked back down at the african themed book in front of him as if he was never looking at the blonde in the first place, this only seemed to piss Naruto off more.

"Bastard." He whispered, squeezing his eyes shut.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

It was just any day after school. Naruto was busy telling a story about detention, as usual on a Thursday afternoon, while walking with Sasuke. "And then I was all like "Take that!" and the teacher guy yelled "Naruto!" and I-"

"Naruto, I can't do this anymore." Naruto halted mid-step and tilted his head at Sasuke- who had also stopped moving- in wonder.

"What?" Sasuke stared straight ahead, like he couldn't even stand to look at him.

"I don't want to be friends with you anymore." Sasuke clarified, shoving his hands in his pockets. Naruto stood speechless for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. As if anticipating Naruto's oncoming question of why, Sasuke supplied an answer. "You're too annoying, I can't stand you."

Another silent moment passed, and slowly Naruto started chuckling slowly, "Nice one Sasuke, I did-"

"I'm not joking Naruto." Sasuke interrupted, eye reeling right into Naruto's. Anger was there, annoyance, frustration, everything was there. Something plummeted all the way to Naruto's stomach, he took a deep breath to subdue the sobbed shock burning to escape.

Before he knew it Sasuke was already walking in the opposite direction, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

oooooOOOOOOooooo

Naruto wadded the stupid piece of paper in front of him in frustration and chucked it at the sleeping form in the row across from him just one seat up. He knew for a fact that Shikamaru was fake sleeping with his touch phone buried somewhere in that damn hoodie currently being used as a fake pillow thing.

So then why the hell was he freaking ignoring his text!

Shikamaru peeked from his arms to glare at him and Naruto motioned texting in the air with a silent whisper of "Check your damn phone!", Shikamaru swung his head to the front where their history teacher was practically putting himself to sleep in his chair while droning on and on about war and then back down to his desk.

Seconds later the phone concealed behind the chair in front of him flashed silently. He stared down at the text: What do you want?

Typical, pretending not to know what he wanted to know. Naruto hurried with his text back, keeping eyes on their teacher just in case. The old man was stealthy when you least expected it. Did you do it?

Do what? Shikamaru fired back, Naruto glared at him as Shikamaru shuffled in his chair, playing with the hoodie bunched up in front of him.

Do the valentine's for Ino! Naruto shot, growing impatient with Shikamaru's reluctance.

No I helped Choji with his, okay? Leave me alone now. Naruto shook his head at the message, debating if he really should leave him alone for now or just continue on anyway until the other got annoyed with him.

His patience wasn't perfect today.

Then what happened to what you bought? Don't tell me your my secret valentine. Naruto was more than certain he at least earned a small reluctant smile with his text, but the Nara was not going to show it anytime soon.

I gave it to someone else. Now will you leave me alone? :P Naruto shook his head at the screen again, for a whole different reason.

Hell no I won't and you know it! Who?! Naruto pressed, unable to contain the nearly died when a minute passed without a reply, and realized that Shikamaru's plan was to avoid him altogether. You better tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Spill!

Still Shikamaru wasn't budging, Naruto glared at him. COME ON TELL ME!

JUST SOME CHICK YOU'RE KILLING MY BATTERY! Naruto frowned, checking the time. Five minute until class was over, maybe he could resist interrogation until then? It would nearly kill him...but still it was worth it.

For the moment, the book of secrets in the library remained forgotten.

* * *

Shikamaru didn't tell him shit.

For the remainder of the day, Naruto made it his goal to find out who this mysterious girl was but the ass wasn't budging for anything! Not one tiny little thing! "What's up with you?" Sakura questioned. They were on their usual walk home together.

"Nothing." Naruto shrugged, "Just a shit day."

"Well it is a Tuesday." Sakura remarked with a sigh, he was relieved to see her unwinding since the phone call with Ino. He was itching to ask her about it, but was way more terrified of making her even more angry than she already was.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, acknowledging each other only to wave goodbye before entering their own homes. Kurama was on the couch again, flipping through channels on the TV.

"Hey." Naruto greeted standing at the end of the couch.

"Food's in the microwave." Kurama answered him, staring at him from the corner of his eyes. "How was your day at school?"

"Tiring." Naruto answered, heading for the kitchen before Kurama could respond with anything else, he already knew what was coming next and for once he found himself really wishing for a conversation with his brother that wasn't influenced by his therapist.

Ugh, speaking of therapists. One look on the calendar revealed yet another appointment for next month with the man. Naruto cringed and opened the microwave only to cringe again.

It was a freaking cooked salad dish thing.

Damn this healthy lifestyle crap! Naruto slammed the microwave shut again, opting to just sneak down early in the morning to eat twice the amount of breakfast. Kurama wouldn't object too much, the most Naruto would have to suffer would be some form of grounding.

Between staying downstairs to deal with a distant Kurama and going upstairs for a nap, the choice Naruto made next was not hard. He cuddled into the familiar covers with a groan, feeling his exhaustion for the first time all day.

And then he remembered the book.

Naruto frowned, remembering what he had just read the other day, and snuggled into his pillow with consideration. Who could that have been? What teacher would do that? And who could forget Sakura's Dad? Now what was that all about?

Thoughts swirled in his mind, people he didn't know flooded through him and worse, people he did know flooded in behind them. What would he do if that happened to one of his friends? What could he do? Does it still hurt them even now?

He thought his last question was pretty stupid, who wouldn't be still affected by an experience like that?

"SOMEONE'S CALLING!" Naruto jumped at the loud howl of Kiba's voice, grumbling as he reached for his backpack and dragged his hands through it's pockets looking for a phone. He found it, glaring at the cell, it responded in his own voice, "PICK UP THE PHONE!"

Why in the world did he ever set his ringtone to this, even for unknown numbers? Naruto considered the reasons, staring at the number in front of him, and froze when he realized something.

He knew that area code.

"HURRY U-" Naruto interrupted his phone, flipping it open and pressing it to his ear.

His heart thumped, throbbing in his chest with longing.

"Hello?"

* * *

**Also if you read mailed to order I am still writing that, but lately I've kind of been more in a sober mood so I just think what I have written isn't complete for that yet and could use some improvement.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four: Phones and Pandas**

"Hello?" Naruto tried again, listening to what was clearly breathing on the other line for a brief second before the line went dead. He glared at the phone, if it was Sasuke like he thought than he would have answered, "Okay? That was weird."

"Naruto!" Shit, Kurama found his untouched food. Naruto threw his phone on the bed behind him and hurried for his bedroom door just as Kurama roared. "Get down here and eat this right now!"

For once, he would like to remind Kurama that they are brothers not parent and child. Well, more like for once he actually resisted telling Kurama to avoid a complicated fight and the following days of even more strained silence between the two of them.

"I was going to eat it!'' Naruto lied as he walked into the kitchen, ignoring the cold stare icing him down, "I just went upstairs to relax for a little while."

"We don't have the money for you to waste on this." Kurama continued his lecture anyway, crossing his arms as the plate of ick rested on the table surface nearby. "If something was going on you would tell me right?"

Naruto shuffled, rubbing the back of his head as he focused on the fridge across the room. So that's what this was really about, his...depression. It was like he couldn't just live one day without someone or something reminding him about his flaws. "Yeah I would, everything's fine Kurama, don't worry. I haven't been drinking, or popping pills, or dabbling in other drugs. I'm fine."

Kurama picked up the plate and set it on the table, Naruto watched his back flex for a moment in thought, as if running through what he wanted to say in his mind, before he turned towards Naruto again. They looked at each other for a moment, blankly, and Naruto wondered if this might actually be the first real conversation they were going to have since his fallout with Sasuke. Kurama opened his mouth, "Just eat it."

And then retreated back to the living room.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

It was cold.

Sakura was his friend now, and that was nice, but other than that there was no one. She had other friends, friends she wanted him to go play laser-tag with and eat pizza until they popped but he wasn't ready for any of that.**(1)**

He missed Sasuke.

He hated Sasuke.

And above all, he was just generally torn between those two pieces of himself and another piece throbbing within him that screamed he was missing something, a loss that clawed at him.

Naruto sighed at his own reflection, running a hand through his hair with a lazy tug. He was tired of this, playing that day over again in his head. Why didn't he say something? Why didn't he fight him?

Why?

It was the only question of his that would never be answered, and he realized that as he gazed down at the drink his hand. This was it, he was finally going to do it.

Naruto threw his head back, downing the contents in one go, the cup fell to the floor as he clutched the burn in his throat.

It was pain.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Naruto!" The thoughts he was so heavily focused on pushed themselves to the back of his mind as he turned to Kiba who was examining him with a concerned expression. They were sitting together on the bus, on the way to some field trip.

"Sorry." Naruto supplied, taking in more concerned gazes of Shikamaru who had his back pressed against the window in the seat in front of him so Choji could fit comfortably and Sakura who was sitting in the seat across from him. "I was just thinking."

"Well don't start the apocalypse." Kiba shook his head with a light chuckle, everyone seemed to ease at the action and Naruto smirked.

"I can't start something that you already started!" Naruto's retort caused everyone to chuckle and Kiba stared at him questioningly.

"I don't get it." That made Shikamaru in particular more amused as everyone laughed again. Sakura was in a more agreeable mood today, after a week and a half of being pissed. Naruto suspected it had something to do with Ino's absence from the field trip all together.

He just wished it was the same for him. Sasuke, the bastard, was sitting four seats ahead of him, clearly visible as he played on his phone. Naruto made himself feel better by imagining more lions chasing after him and mangling his body.

Which was a reasonable fantasy considering they were going to the zoo.

"So are any of you guys actually going to do the assignment or just walk around aimlessly for the next few hours?" Shikamaru question, shifting against the window for a more comfortable angle, in front a teacher yelled for him to sit properly and was ignored.

"Well, it is a grade." Sakura fidgeted, playing with the hem of her shirts.

"Yeah, a bullshit grade we could finish with google." Kiba nudged her, wiggling his eyebrows, "Join the dark side, we have freedom."

Shikamaru snorted, playing with his ear, "Yeah, but it comes with a price. My Mom is still pissed about the cheeto thing, and helping you two with the colors in Ino's hair. Her Mom called mine and they bitched each other out for an eternity."

Kiba and Naruto high-fived at the memory, Ino's scream practically echoed throughout the whole neighborhood and she had to wear a sunflower hat to school the next day. The celebration was halted by the realization that they had no clue what "the cheeto thing" was. Both boys looked at their friend expectedly, Naruto raised an eyebrow, "The cheeto thing?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "I skipped gym so Choji asked me to go to the gas station to get him some Cheetos because he's been craving them lately. I didn't expect Coach Guy to be there."

Everyone winced at the revelation,Kiba shook his head, "Ouch."

"Yeah that happened yesterday, now I'm grounded until I'm Twenty five." Shikamaru rubbed his neck, shifting some more. Choji scooted a little in an attempt to give him more room, only to be yelled at by the same teacher for having his feet in the aisle.

"Alright we get it!" Kiba shot up and yelled, ducking low in his seat after as the teacher scanned the bus with critical eyes, trying to pinpoint the troublemaking student.

"Who said that?!" The teacher yelled, tearing through the now gawking students with questioning glances at each other. Without any prompting, Shikamaru took advantage of his height and pointed right at Sasuke. Naruto covered his mouth to stifle the laughter threatening to spill out at Kiba himself stood up and followed Shikamaru's stunning example, whispering " it was him."

"You with the phone!" Sasuke snapped his head up with a bored stare, surveying the people around him. Shikamaru faced toward Naruto again, and Kiba ducked in his seat, but Naruto could not avoid that deep dark stare as he pressed a hand firmly over his lips. "Get up here."

It seemed like Sasuke would never look away, he rose from his seat with that stare still glaring down on Naruto, moving at his own pace as the girls in the front protested in his defense to the teacher. Naruto was thankful when Sasuke got to a point down the aisle where he had to look away, and relaxed in his seat with a sigh.

"What did you start that for?" Kiba leaned into the seat, watching what Naruto was guessing Sasuke trying to convince the teacher he was not the one who yelled at him earlier. "I would expect that from me or Naruto."

"Sasuke's the one who ratted me out." Shikamaru confessed to them with a shrug, "He saw me ducking out of one of the side exits and told Coach Guy, who then got in his car to find me. And he did.I really can't stand that guy."

Why would Sasuke do that?

The questioned flooded Naruto's mind before he could stop it and he had to remind himself that he didn't know Sasuke anymore and more than likely never did in the first place. So there was no need for Naruto to defend him even mentally.

Sasuke never returned to his seat, and Naruto didn't see him again until he was following Kiba off the bus. The Uchiha was standing next to the teacher with his arms crossed and a defiant glare adorning his features as the teacher continued to lecture him.

"That sort of behavior isn't going to help him much." Kiba smirked, falling in line beside Naruto. Shikamaru, Sakura, and Choji joined them moments later. Sakura looked back at Sasuke with an apologetic glance before turning around and bumping into Naruto's arm playfully.

Not what he was expecting at all.

But maybe Sakura was tired of being angry for the week and just wanted to relax, Naruto reasoned, so she resolved not to get upset about the treatment of Sasuke. Sakura looped her arm with hers as they followed the crowd and collected the assignment sheets they were all supposed to fill out.

That was when the teacher from the bus approached their group. "I noticed your group has five, the requirement is six, I hope you don't mind adding Mr. Uchiha to your group." The teacher spat out Sasuke's name with a venom that sent all five students into shock. Naruto felt Sakura's worried gaze on him, and swung their interlocked arms with insurance.

"Actually we were going to ask-" Shikamaru buried his hands in his pockets and leaned his head to the right, his eyes sweeping the crowd for any stray soul, "the kid in the black there, he looks lonely- we want to make new friends."

Shikamaru wasn't lying, the kid did look lonely, he had bright red hair, with dark eyeliner trimming his eyes. Beside him Kiba shivered, leaning in to whisper in Naruto's ear. "Dude, that's Gaara. "

Naruto stared at Gaara wide-eyed, he'd never even met Gaara, just heard the horror stories.

The teacher followed Shikamaru's gaze with a frown, observing the odd student out standing with his arms crossed glaring at anyone who got too close. His critical eye swept the crowd and an odd group of five giggling girls caught his eye. The teacher turned to Shikamaru again, "That's alright, it seems there is another group I can place-" he looked down at Sasuke with his lips curled in a sneer, "Mr. Uchiha in."

Within moments Sasuke found himself stuck with a bunch of chicks from his fangirl club and the creepy kid had joined Naruto's group. "That almost backfired on us." Shikamaru stretched, wrapping his hands behind his head as they broke away from the rest of the student body to wander in the direction of a petting zoo.

"You're probably going to win suck-up of the year Shikamaru." Kiba teased, Sakura rolled her eyes and he added, "Unless Sakura beats you to it."

That earned him a light smack in the abdomen.

"So, you're Gaara right?" Naruto decided to be the brave one and actually talk to their reluctant tag-along. " The redhead attempted to stare him down, unaware of the blonde's tolerance of every glare known to man. Naruto just smiled in response, rattling the other teen.

"I have a class with you right?" Naruto pretended to think, tapping his chin with one finger, cursing his complete lack of attention span. How did he not realize sooner, and more importantly why didn't Shikamaru tell him anything?! "Don't you sit next to me in history? I never realized who you were before." Gaara eyed Naruto warily for a moment, as if simultaneously annoyed and somewhat flattered that Naruto had bothered to notice.

"Do you mind not doing anything with us for the remainder of the day?" Shikamaru interrupted, he had been watching the exchange between Gaara and Naruto, waiting for the right moment to intervene.

"No." After his response, Gaara fell silent, following the group along as they argued over what to do first. Kiba insisted on seeing some monkeys, Sakura was interested in the panda visiting the zoo, and all Shikamaru wanted to do was find a bench. Naruto just found himself being slowly consumed with excitement for every and any idea proposed.

He welcomed the feeling with open arms.

"What do you want to do?" Naruto turned around to face a lingering Gaara, starting to walk backwards despite the disapproving look from Sakura. Feeling confident, he looped his arms around his head much like Shikamaru earlier and smiled at Gaara.

"I am just tagging along." Gaara replied after a momentary silence.

"So! You could still want to see something." Naruto waved his arms in the air, his eyes snapping with realization, "Want to see the panda's you kind of look like a panda!"

Gaara clenched and unclenched his arms with another glare, but Naruto shot another disarming smile and walked up closer to Gaara.

"It's just with your-"

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, but it was too late, Naruto failed to realize that he was walking forwards into the area of a large rock he miraculously dodged while walking backwards. So of course he bumped into it, tripping forward and straight into Gaara whose reflexes caught him. Startled blue eyes looked up at Gaara, noses inches apart.

"Eyes." Naruto finished, clearing his throat and stepping back, Gaara looked anywhere but him as the explanation continued in a ramble, "Because you, well, you have the eyeliner on your eyes and panda's have that black around their eyes too, you know? So I just thought "Hey, this guy is totally a panda!" and well, you get it, right Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru was walking with Choji off to the side, mid-conversation about what appeared to be snacks from his lunch box, more like cooler. At Naruto's question Shikamaru simply glanced at him, shrugged his shoulders, and replied with a drawl, "Yup, sure."

"See?" Naruto laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head, he really didn't want to die "So, uh, that's all I meant."

Gaara simply gave him a slight nod, not realizing he was undertaking a new nickname. Naruto had taken to calling him panda related things over the course of the next two hours as they walked around the zoo and Naruto chatted away about all the animals, telling stories from his childhood with vivid details.

"Lets stop at the food area for lunch now, before the crowd gets there." suggested Shikamaru wanting his chance to sit down, Choji agreed with him at the mention of food, and the group set off for the food court.

What they saw when they arrived was...surprising.

Sasuke was sitting at a table, surrounded by the five girls from earlier, attempting to ignore them with a scowl on his face. Kiba laughed at the sight, picking out a table five rows away for the distance and the view, Sasuke didn't seem to notice them.

Naruto peeled his eyes off Sasuke and decided to focus on talking to Gaara more, which worked until the redhead excused himself to go to the bathroom and stumbled away, overwhelmed at all the conversation and fluttering blue eyed glances.

Naruto sighed down at his lunch, determined not to look in Sasuke's direction. He'd been thinking way too much about what happened lately, that was dangerous.

"Flirt." Naruto looked up, sending a questioning glare to Kiba who was smirking at him. Beside Kiba Shikamaru lifted his head off the table with an accusing look.

"What?" Naruto rose an eyebrow, cheeks tinged slightly, "I am not flirting!"

"We've been over this, you flirt, just accept it." Shikamaru stated.

"Sakura." Naruto looked to his right for her support, but she only gave him a weak smile that told him "sorry Naruto, I agree.", and looked away. Naruto groaned, cupping his eyes with his hands, "I don't mean to."

"Hey, we're just letting you know, you've been flirting with Gaara all day." Kiba shuddered, his face wincing as if it pained him to admit it, "How can you flirt with that guy? How can you talk to him? Do you just flirt with everybody?'

"I don't flirt with you!" Naruto pointed out.

Kiba's eyes widened before setting into a glare. "Hey, why don't you flirt with me?"

"I don't know, its probably just your face." Naruto stuck his tongue out at Kiba, earning a kick under the table.

"Or it could be that you two have a lot in common and are more brotherly than anything." Sakura offered, pointing at all of the group members as she continued to explain, "Shikamaru's your friend, but if you bat your eyelashes a lot and beg him he'd give in and do whatever you want. So you tend to flirt with him more when you're trying to get your way. With me, I'm an old crush. With Cho-"

"You flirt with me when you want food." Choji interjected, taking a bite into a large barbecue sandwich, chewing as he continued. "Sometimes it works, I end up giving you at least half my food."

"You flirt with Ino when you accidently insult or annoy her." Shikamaru counted the names on his fingers, "Hinata- you don't really have a reason, you just do it. With Neji it's usually the same as me, and we already talked about Sai. You barely talk to Shino, so I haven't noticed anything there."

"Oh God." Naruto groaned, his head slamming into the table, "I'm such a whore."

"More like tease." Kiba corrected, sticking out his tongue this time.

"Shut-up!" Naruto stood in his chair with a groan, "I'm going to the bathroom."

"Don't let Gaara bite." Kiba called after him, Naruto flipped him off, eyes on the ground. Why was he flirting like that? It was like he was using people. A rock sunk further in his stomach, settling against his skin, was he really that manipulative?

And why flirt with Gaara? Or Sai? It could be because of- Naruto collided with a body in front of him, looking up with an apology on the tip of his tongue only to be halted by the sight of one person-Sasuke.

Naruto found himself reflecting the glare he was receiving as he studied Sasuke's pale features. What happened to that cry-baby he used to know?

"Move." Sasuke spoke, looking away like he had plenty of better things to do than talk to Naruto. The blonde scuffed, feeling the deep rage he always had under control take over.

"Enjoying your fan club?" Naruto remarked, catching Sasuke's attention once again.

"So it was you." Sasuke pulled out his best glare, his fists winding tightly together as his teeth clenched. "Naruto."

He couldn't help it, Naruto flinched at the sound of his own name coming from his ex-old friends mouth. But had little time to reflect on the action before Sasuke had him on the ground, hitting him with punches.

Naruto struggled against him, swinging his arms and fists madly as yells and calls erupted around let out a grunt as he was pulled away by an unknown source, Naruto opened eyes he had not realized were closed. Sakura frowned down at him, offering her hand, "Are you okay?"

"What is going on here?!" A voice interrupted Naruto before he could reply, Sakura hauled him to his feet and he found himself staring at Sasuke who was standing with his hands pinned behind his back by Gaara, glaring. The same teacher from the bus came to stand in between them and demanded once again, "What happened?"

Naruto groaned at the realization he would be getting in trouble for all of this. What would Kurama say?

Just another disappointment.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"What were you thinking?!" Naruto stared down at his hands, he was sitting in the car on the way home from the hospital, "You could have died Naruto! Mixing drugs with alchohol like that was so dangerous."

"I'm sorry." Naruto mumbled, locking his fingers together.

"I don't know what to do anymore Naruto! Your grades are falling, you're gone all the time, and you lie to me-" Kurama gripped the steering wheel with a frustrated exhale, "I'm taking care of this, we're going to a therapist and that's final."

"Okay." Naruto leaned his head against the glass of the window, unable to bring himself to confess that he intended to die from the very beginning.

And he never did.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"I'm sorry." Naruto squeezed the palm of his hand, not daring to look up from his could feel Gaara's eyes burning his skin in the seat next to him. Gaara had somehow gotten pulled into the whole mess when the five girls with Sasuke accused him of attacking Sasuke and no one could say anything that would prove otherwise.

"Don't be." Gaara's deep voice answered him, and the burning gaze subsided, Naruto sneaked a peek, watching Gaara glare at the ceiling with his arms crossed.

So he was mad.

Great, a new friend and a field trip with his good friends were both ruined by him. Him and that bastard. Said bastard was in the office right now, being yelled at by the principle for both his "attitude and misconduct" on the field trip today.

Itachi is going to be pissed.

Kurama is going to be pissed.

As if on cue his brother entered the office, shaking his head once at Naruto with a disapproving look in his eyes. "Me and the principle already settled everything, you're being suspended for three days, now go to the car and wait for me."

Naruto gave Gaara one last apologetic before walking out the door, this time ready to face the disappointment.

Why did he always fuck everything up?

* * *

**1. This happened before his first game of laser tag**

**So this is a longer chapter! I really wanted to explore Kurama and Naruto's relationship more :D Plz review, also everyone say hello to Gaara, because he was a surprise addition to this chapter to me XDDD No really, I had no intention of having him in the chapter, and he just came to me out of freaking nowhere, so I hope you don't mind.**

**No there will be no GaaraXNaruto or anything. But sometimes there will be flirting on Naruto's part. **

**So review~!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five: Detention and Discussions**

Naruto's three day suspension passed in a fray of afternoon naps, chores, and more forced conversations with Kurama than was the norm. Neither brother was very pleased with the other. Kurama was upset with Naruto for fighting, and Naruto was upset at Kurama for setting up an additional week of detention for the blonde as an extra lesson.

Not just any detention either, detention with Sasuke.

Naruto frowned at the thought, tracing his hand over the now familiar scribbles of secrets in the library. It was lunchtime, and he just wasn't in the mood to be around his friends, not that everyone was exactly peachy. A whole mess of things probably occurred in his absence.

It was his first time reading the book since the revelation of the student, since then Naruto couldn't help the sinking apprehension of what else he might stumble upon in the book every time he thought about reading it.

But so far there had yet to be one that rivaled the first.

He sighed, returning the book to its rightful place as he rested in the middle of the floor, shielded from any disapproving looks the librarian might shoot at him.

Sakura's dad.

The memory of the secret whispered in his ear with a curious push, urging him to seek an answer. But would Sakura even know? Would he be able to ask her about it? She had been in a bad mood since the field-trip, when he asked Kiba about it the brunette just shrugged his shoulders and said "chick stuff?"

Could he just forget it?

Naruto had already been partially successful in forgetting about it, the distractions of his life certainly helped. So perhaps he could just let it go, though he wondered how many times he would come to that conclusion before it actually happened.

"You're in the way." Naruto opened one eye, looking up to stare in the familiar face of Jugo. His other eye opened in surprise, but Naruto remained sprawled out on the ground. Jugo kept his stare on Naruto, eyeing him with a cool indifference.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, really questioning that stare Jugo always kept on him these days, but Jugo did not seem to catch that.

"A book on mockingbirds." Jugo nudged his head to the side, Naruto frowned and reached his hand out, pulling out all the books on mockingbirds from the eyes lingering on the book of secrets momentarily before he held up the pile to Jugo, who took them without his gaze leaving Naruto. "I'll have detention with you and Sasuke today."

Naruto blinked in surprise, glaring up at Jugo. What was the point in telling him that? Did Jugo want him to know that Sasuke would have back up if he tried anything funny? Or was he just throwing it in Naruto's face that he had detention with Sasuke of all people later? Either way, he'd be stuck with his ex-best friend and his new best friend in detention.

Great, just great.

* * *

Naruto avoided his friends for the rest of the day. Sakura did not notice, Ino seemed just as absorbed, Kiba withdrew into a spaced out shell at the signs of a brewing conflict, Shikamaru and Choji were also oddly distant, and in the end that left all of the group in a simultaneous bad day.

So it worked out for everyone that no one wanted to talk to each other.

Naruto itched with the worry that he might lose his friends if things kept up, well Kiba he knew would always be there at least and Sakura too, but still. "Will you stop." Naruto stiffened at the voice, keeping his eyes on the soaked mop in front of him with puddles forming around it's sides so that he did not turn around and snap Sasuke's neck.

Naruto kept moping.

"You're getting his pants soaked." Jugo invaded, Naruto looked up to see a distressed Sasuke on his knees in front of the wall to his right, scrubbing away todays graffiti. He decided that he didn't give a damn if Sasuke was soaked anyway.

So he kept moping.

Naruto could hear Sasuke's deep breathe, a calm before the storm, before the words were even out of his mouth, "If you don't know-"

"Then you mop!" Naruto exploded, throwing the mop to the ground, he was tired of this already. Sasuke itched at him every time they were even in the same area! His friends were all distressed! Kurama, Kurama, where did it ever end with Kurama!

Naruto pulled at his blonde hair in frustration, releasing a low angry groan, before stomping out of the room without a second glance at either of the other boys in the room. This was too much, way too much. Right there in that moment, he decided that he didn't give a damn about Kurama's disappointments anymore!

"Sasuke, not now!" Jugo's voice echoed behind him, pressing Naruto to walk at a faster pace than course Sasuke would want to fight him, because he was annoying! An annoying talkative fuck-up and everyone knows it! Naruto flew out of the side entrance, pacing in the sidewalk and half wishing for Sasuke to come storming out behind him.

But he never came.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Naruto, come on." Kurama knocked on their bathroom door lightly, an excitement clearly evident in his tone. It was a holiday, why wouldn't he be excited? They were going to eat good food, have a good time, see old friends...see Sasuke.

Naruto was slightly better after befriending Sakura at the park a week ago, but he still had not brought it up with Kurama that Sasuke practically friendship-dumped him. Now they were going to Itachi's, because he obviously also had no clue, and they were going to be all merry.

"I'm ready." Naruto attempted to sound cheerful, plastering a half smirk on his face before exiting the restroom. Kurama was already at the door, adjusting his coat around his shoulders, he smiled up at Naruto before flinging the door open and they raced down the path towards the car. Naruto won, sliding into the seat with a brief shudder of happiness swelling in his heart.

Then he remembered where he was going.

When they arrived to Sa-Itachi's house, Naruto decided to make himself scarce with constant excuses to the bathroom and offerings to help out Itachi with things around the house. It might be odd, but maybe he could just say that Sasuke and him were fighting?

"Come in." Itachi opened the door before Kurama could even knock on the door, a slight smirk on his face as he politely gestured for them to enter. Naruto shuffled under his gaze, rubbing the side of his arm with a nervous smile. "Naruto, how are you?''

"Alright." Naruto nodded his head, fighting the urge to look around for Sasuke. "What about you?"

"Busy." Itachi sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Sasuke has been especially difficult lately."

Naruto looked away from the man with a shrug, "Well it is Sasuke."

"Hello, Kurama." The urge to flinch curled in Naruto's shoulders, and he summoned every ounce of his energy to shove it back had finally decided to make his appearance. Ignoring Kurama and Sasuke's little exchange of conversation, Naruto fixed his attention on Itachi.

"Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving." Naruto patted his stomach with a half-pouting face.

"I have some snacks, but if you eat them you have to help me with dinner. I don't want your brother anywhere near my kitchen this year." Itachi's eyes widened slightly at the memories of Kurama's insistence that they use tofu instead of beef for a majority of the dishes.

"I'll help, I'm desperate enough." Naruto finged a groan, dramatically rolling his eyes as he followed Itachi to the kitchen. An hour must have past, a blissful hour filled with chopping and mixing before the dreaded words escaped Itachi's mouth.

"I'll take over, you can go visit with Sasuke now." Naruto just shrugged off his apron with a weak smile and trotted into the living room where Kurama was sitting in an armchair, mid-conversation with Sasuke about some TV show they both liked.

Naruto waltzed right past them and entered the bathroom, wringing his hands together in frustration. This was it, the time had come. What was Sasuke planning to do?

Why hadn't he said anything?

"Naruto! Dinner!" Had it really been that long? Itachi said 15 minutes just before he sent the blonde out of the kitchen. Naruto scrambled for the dining room, taking his seat in-between his brother and Itachi.

"So how have things been at school lately?" Itachi inquired, serving himself.

"Fine." Naruto and Sasuke both replied, Naruto locked gazes with him for the first time since their talk, a cold indifference settled in those deep dark eyes.

"Really, there's not anything new? We need dinner conversation here boys." Kurama chimed in, smiling from Naruto to Sasuke.

"Naruto and I are no longer friends." Sasuke salted his food, stirring the salt without a blink. The table was dead silent, two brotherly eyes trained themselves on Naruto with unvoiced questions.

"Y-yeah." Naruto swallowed, "We are no longer friends."

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

Why was this happening?

Naruto sighed, watching Sakura scribble roughly on the piece of paper in front of her. A mental debate was taking place in his head, arguing that offering her help-or not- was a futile effort considering either way she would murder him for opening his mouth. Sai for once seemed to understand this as he watched her with mild fascination gleaming in his eyes. Conversations with Sai had virtually ceased to exist ever since Valentine's Day and Naruto wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.

Evil is a sneaky slow poison after all right?

His thoughts were so trained on the distant socially-challenged boy in front of him that Naruto almost missed the sensation of a piece of notebook paper scratching its way over his first resting on the table.

Naruto looked up- briefly making eye contact with Jugo who looked away instantly- and frowned before turning his attention to the note again. Naruto took two fingers and unfolded the piece of paper with a dramatic display of reluctance, like the note was a bomb or poisonous rat.

_He didn't mean it._

What the hell did that mean? Naruto glared at the piece of paper, reaching instantly for his bag on the floor and rummaging through it to write a note of his own- but found he had attracted Sakura's very unwanted attention.

"Naruto! If you have time for that then help me!" Sakura roared, slamming up over the head with her notebook. Half the class snickered in amusement, cowering under Sakura's sweeping glare in the next instant. "Shut-up!"

Naruto attempted to catch Jugo's gaze again, and naturally seemed to fail at that too.

* * *

"Naruto!" Naruto halted, mid-step behind Jugo who was now waltzing-figuratively, not literally- down the hallway with Sasuke anyway. He turned to Sai with a sigh, squirming in place with impatience, "I have been giving you space, as Sakura suggested, and now I have to ask if it is okay to approach you again?"

Naruto wavered, wanting to tell Sai to fuck off but at the same time was recoiling at the image of Sai's hurt stare and no doubt offensive comments following the rejection. "As friends." Naruto settled, trying to make eye contact to get the message clear across, "That's all."

"As friends." Sai nodded, gesturing out of the english classroom, "Can we walk to math together?"

Naruto eyed him with a warning look before shrugging and walking out of the room, Sai trailing behind him in silence. What had the note meant? What did "he not mean" or whatever? And who the hell was "he" anyway, did this Jugo guy have no idea how to be specific?

Naruto entered math in a more sullen mood than he was before, something that did not go unnoticed by his classmates who seemed taken aback but the blondes absent smiley face.

Even Sasuke's eyes seemed to drift closer to him, pissing him off.

When the hell did his life turn into one big fat math quiz? What was Sasuke, some fucking X next to a big fat fraction? And Sakura would probably be the Y, putting them all together with her crushing and friendship.

Naruto groaned in his hands and silently apologized to Sakura for taking his anger out on her for no good reason. Life was probably the Y, just stupid life. Sakura was probably more like a number, or a third variable in his life along with the rest of his friends. Well, Sai felt more like a number, something like 2, because that number just annoyed the shit out of him. And the book...

The book...

Naruto's eyes widened at the corners in realization that he was about to include the secrets book into the mix of things without any good reason. That's when he knew there was no turning back.

He had to finish that book.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"I'll get you clothes to change into." Naruto set the soaked bouquet of roses on the kitchen table and pulled out his phone as he ran up to his room. A glittering text from Shikamaru was awaiting him, leaking with ounces and pounds of anticipation.

By the way I forgot to ask, did you like your Valentines from Sai?

Naruto glared at the screen, he knew he shouldn't have tried anything on Shikamaru who obviously came up with some kind of scheme involving Sai. Naruto opened his drawer, now feeling sorry for Sai, who was now a victim of both his and Shikamaru's personal quirks. Didn't Shikamaru know it was going to-wait a second.

Naruto bolted up, a pair of shorts dangling from his hands as he turned around just in time to see a naked Sai close behind him. He was pinned to the dresser by the others mouth and over-eager tongue, not feeling more than a pinprick of pleasure from the experience.

"What the hell!" Naruto roared, shoving Sai back, throwing the shorts at his head. "Put on this and get out of my room! Go in the kitchen!"

Sai obeyed him with a defiant thought gleaming in his eyes, and Naruto cursed his own forgetfulness. Shikamaru, for whatever reason(mostly the clouds), always watches the weather channel.

He knew it was going to rain, the asshat.

** oooooOOOOOOooooo  
**

With all the fighting, bad moods, and distant conversations lately, Naruto had almost completely forgotten about the laser-tag match tomorrow.

Well, he did forget, but earlier that morning before school Sakura threw the new strategy by Shikamaru at his head at told him to actually read it this time. He forgave her mostly because she was scary, and attempted to read the somewhat boring explanation to the best of his ability.

Kiba seemed renewed by the idea of a laser-tag game, and kept teasing Shikamaru and Choji into talking with him by gloating that he was going to kick some major ass later. Both of them laughed at him together, which started a major conversational debate on who was going to beat who.

Naruto was relieved by the reaction, some earlier stresses of the week rolled off his shoulders. Ever since the first day of detention, when Naruto exploded on them and earned another detention in the process, Sasuke and Jugo had remained oddly out of his way during their duties.

Something that Naruto found almost as annoying as he found it relaxing.

Sasuke's very existence seemed to rile Naruto up naturally, it didn't matter what he did or didn't do, Sasuke was always in his mind. In his memories, thoughts, concerns, and even, to his horror, shuffling in the background of his life with a constant presence.

"Dude, you're breaking your pencil." Kiba snapped his fingers and waved a hand in front of Naruto's face, the blonde blinked and looked around, realizing that somehow he was now walking down the hall with Kiba on the way to lunch carrying his note book and a pencil that now had a crack in it, "I've been walking beside you for the last minute, do you realize that you make a lot of weird faces when your thinking?"

"No." Naruto shook his head, stopping in his tracks, "I don't think I'm going to go to lunch today, so tell Sakura not to worry, I'm going to get the strategy right this time."

Naruto waved Kiba off, ignoring Kiba's silent protests to him going off by himself again instead of eating lunch with the rest of them. He waited until his friend was out of sight before rushing to the library, keeping an eye out for anyone who would try to follow him inside.

Naruto couldn't relax until he was in his favorite spot again, cradling the book of secrets in his hands and, with a strangled gulp, turning its pages to the more current section he had been avoiding. He stopped at the start of his freshman year, each of the next three pages had about 12 different notes of confessions or complaints in them. Three of them, he noticed, seem to be having an indirect conversation with each other. (1) Others were raging on about assignments or teachers, mostly Naruto's current english teacher he noticed, and the others were more secrets just as shaking as the one that had its own page.

It wasn't until he read through four pages that he found something more frustrating than it should have been worth. Underneath the regular complaints and funny rants and replies rested a secret whose handwriting looked very familiar.

_I don't know how to apolo_-**_DUMBASS I HATE HER SHE RUINS_**-_ I've al_-**_EVERYTHING AND TALKS_**-_bad at it because_-**_WELL I'M SORRY THAT I DON'T HAVE TIME, I'M_**_-ruto, I'm sorry_-** I don't get what you're problem is, you're the dumbass**_-that I did. I think about you every_- **_SHUT UP, WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY! THIS BOOk IS A PERFECT_**- _still in it._

_I_-_** FUCKING HATE YOU, AND THE TEACHER JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! DO YOU HAVE NO**-like Sakura**-LIFE-,**_ _so I gave up._

_I'm_-** Wow, you're a dumbass.**

"You're both a dumbass", Naruto grumbled to himself, trying to read under the layers of ink in front of him with frustration. He had to know what it said, had to know because it mentioned Sakura, and that -ruto might just be his name.

And this handwriting was definitely Sasuke's

* * *

**1. I wrote an unpublished fanfic like that, so it's sort of a reference. Maybe I'll post it now XD I'll have to do lots of editing first O-o because its incomplete and old XD**

**Now before you jump to conclusions remember, you don't know shit yet XD**

**Also I felt the need to answer a reviewer(SORRY I DONT REMEMBER WHO AND IM WAY TO LAZY TO CHECK RIGHT NOW XD I'll GET YOU LATER) who asked me about what happened with Naruto and Sai on valentines day. Which is why I am kind of happy that I set up this fic the way I have, because I would just write and post it as an answer. So if any of you have any moments your questioning, or memories you want to see that Naruto might talk about (If I don't already have them planned out I'll fit them in here)**

**Buckle up because we are just getting started, this shit won't be over for way more chapters, trust me :D Also part 6 if fucking huge, a lot of shit goes down and if I'm right it will be just as long, if not longer, than the first chapter but we have to see!**

**Review~! It warms my insanely sadistic heart.**


	6. FLASHBACKS

**I want to say that I'm going to go back and fix my issues with the flashbacks and that I wasn't trying to "Insult anyone" by using them, but you have to understand that I was extremely frustrated with FF, and have been, for cutting away things when I upload.**

**I do NOT like to read the type of separation line I have been using so far, and IT'S FUCKING PISSING ME OFF!**

**I really have to make that clear now.**

**But FF KEEPS DELETING EVERYTHING ELSE AND ITS DRIVING ME INSANE!**

**Also the reason that I don't do just normal transitions is that I ALSO get complaints about that. If this were a story that I was publishing, it wouldn't be an issue but this is FANFICTION I don't care XD I spend about 16 hours a day writing serious! I come here to relax!**

**Also I do flashback in the same tense for this fic on purpose, because rather than looking back(even though you technically are) I prefer to be right in the moment. It isn't always how I do it, but I've found for my fics I prefer it. I hate regular flashbacks all the time, I like a bit of SEPARATION instead of transition. Which is my outline for these chapters, so please respect that this is the form I have chosen for a valid reason.**

**I don't really mean to get pissed but I really have to post this after my last review, because I'm getting tired of these issues. I WILL fix this problem before the next post and then I WON'T HEAR ANOTHER FUCKING WORD ABOUT HOW I SOLVE IT OR I'M DROPPING THE ENTIRE FUCKING FIC!**

**I also want to say that I'm not angry with the guest reviewer (just in case you're reading this) I think your reviews are very constructive and would like to hear more (though plz bother to make an account if you are going to review like that, just to get feedback at least) It's just all my frustration from dealing with this issue!**

**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**

**Anyway, that's all for now, I'll get back to things later and I'm sorry if I've freaked any of you out XD Its like 4am and I'm going to attempt to sleep before I have to wake up and WRITE more XD (and fix these transitions FUCKING HELL)**


	7. Chapter 6

**Part 6: Hits and Hurt**

"We did it." Sakura stood in front of her laser tag group, the piece of paper in her hands trembling, as she exploded with joy "Yes!"

Naruto turned to Kiba in a daze, his head still spinning from so much activity without sleeping. Yet another secret from the book had kept him up all night, on top of what might be a mysteriously forming cold. "What?"

"We won!" Kiba simplified, his cheer coming down with a crashing halt, "Without me, man I feel like Shino."

"Sitting right here." Hinata hummed from beside Kiba, nodding towards her now sulking boyfriend. Naruto and Kiba cringed before giving him a brisk apology. Sakura seemed like she was on top of the world, and Ino seemed like she was watching from the deep dark depths of hell. Shikamaru seemed especially uneasy by her mood considering that he was the main source of Sakura's victory. Though- as Shikamaru so delightfully added in with an accusing hesitation-Naruto had bothered to actually study the strategy.

The end result? Ino was pissed at them both.

Shikamaru and Naruto sat together at the end of the table for their regular pizza filled feast, hiding from Ino's penetrating glare behind their trusted friends and companions.

"Are you trying to have me killed?!" Naruto growled at him, throwing a random ketchup packet**(1)** at Shikamaru from across the table. "I already don't feel that great, I have no sleep, and now I have to worry about Ino turning my hair purple!"

"How is she going to turn your hair purple?" Shikamaru instantly went for his weakest defense to weaken the argument, "Is she a witch? Does she use magic? Ino doesn't know where you live moron, I on the other hand happen to be a somewhat childhood friend! I have no defense for her next move! At least you can hide in your house."

Naruto glared at him, snorting with a realization, "Since when have you not been prepared with a defense? You were going to help us win, you knew she would be pissed at you, how are you not ready for it?"

That seemed to stun his friend, and Naruto thought he should consider taking medication more often. It made him feel all hazy, but at the same time seemed to give his thought process an advantage. Shikamaru glared at him once before cradling his head.

"Unless..." Naruto caught up with a sly smile, "You want her to be mad at you, because is she's mad at you then she's going to talk to you! And you need to talk to her about something so you can ask her to give you advice without having to come out and say it!"

Naruto remembered this tactic, Shikamaru told him about it unintentionally one time when he needed Ino's help with some embarrassingly girly project. Instead of asking her directly for it, he tricked her into doing it instead.

"What's so personal that you need her help?" Naruto leaned in with a whisper, Shikamaru flipped him off and the blonde opted to save his questions for History. Maybe he could finally convince Shikamaru to tell him about his valentines mystery chick.

Oh, what if he needed her help with the mystery chick!

"Naruto." Kiba elbowed him, Naruto raised his head to yell at him and found himself distracted by the panic in his friends eyes, Kiba pointed straight ahead, "Look over there."

There was Sai, standing with a knowing smirk on his face, talking to Sasuke of all people.

Sasuke.

Sai.

Naruto stood up, sending his chair back with a clatter. The table froze, staring at him with concern, Shikamaru peeked from his arms reluctantly and sat up to full attention from what must have been the look on Naruto's face. "What is it?"

"I have to go." Naruto all but ran from the table, walking towards the exit in a half run. He was just starting to relax in a place he thought was untouched by stupid school! Why was Sasuke in a place like that anyway! With Sai of all people?!

When was he going to get a break?!

* * *

Naruto spent the weekend with his phone shut off and his bedroom door locked. He loved spending time with his friends, but was also overwhelmed by all the feelings that seemed to be pouring out of him in waves on uncontrollable anger.

He needed it to stop.

For years, nothing had changed- excluding Sasuke's visit to the laser tag place, that was new- and Naruto had never done anything about it. He kept it all inside with a satisfying success of ignoring any problem that seemed to hurl his way. Now all of a sudden it was like he was spiraling out of control again, just like before, when he...

Naruto fought the urge to pack all his things and head somewhere that lead to nowhere. He couldn't just run away from it, even he knew that, but the temptations where there. Once he recognized that, Naruto was able to return to school after the weekend with a sense of calm and originality of his former self.

"Doing better?" Kiba half- teased him when he entered school that morning.

"Yeah, all I needed was a weekend without your face." Naruto shrugged, Kiba threw milk carton at him but missed. Instead it landed on the floor next to Ino's feet and bursted open.

They ran for their lives, relaxing three hallways away from the cafeteria near a door of some random classroom. "Hey..." Kiba panted, leaning against the wall, "This weird to say, but maybe you should talk to Sakura. Haul her off to where you disappear all the time or something."

"Because of her bad mood?" Naruto rose an eyebrow, "Her and Ino fight like that every once in awhile, its always the same, you know that."

Kiba shook his head and shrugged. "It's just different this time talk to her!"

It had to be serious if Kiba is getting involved. "Alright, I'll talk to her later." His stomach clenched as the sentence left his mouth, he should talk to Sakura more often but her temper during these times often scares him away.

"Good. Now-" Kiba pulled him in with one arm draped over his shoulders, "Tell me about detention with the rat."

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

"Are you coming?" Naruto's blue eyes shied away from the gleaming hopeful green eyes of Sakura. They were sitting at the park together, sitting on the swingset that they talked on the first night they ever became anything similiar to friends. "Please Naruto!"

Laser tag went very well, but he was still uncertain about attending Ino's party.**(2)** He'd never been invited before to anything and even with Sakura's insistent claims that it will be fun, Naruto was still nervous about it. "I don't know..."

"Naruto!" Sakura nudged him with her foot, "Come on! Live a little!"

Live, the word stabbed him in the heart. It had been days since he was released from the hospital and no one but Kurama knew what happened. He still had no idea how to approach the topic with her, a part of him was afraid that it would scare her away, and the other part was scared it would pull her closer-making him vulnerable again.

"Yeah." He swallowed with a smile and a nod, "Yeah, I'll go."

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

"So..." Naruto looked around the lunch table pausing briefly on each one of his friends. Ino was picking at her food with a glare, Shikamaru retreated into some kind of turtle shell within his arms, Choji sat beside him happily munching away, Sakura seemed to be looking right past him and when he finally got around to Kiba he found that the other was staring right back.

"I'm leaving." Sakura stood up, sliding her tray off the table in haste. Kiba nodded in her general direction as she stomped off, motioning for him to follow her. Naruto tried not to groan as he did- as awful as it was to admit- he was not looking forward to this conversation.

"Sakura!" He called after her, she seemed to increase her pace as he did so and he was reminded of that day he followed her to the park. With the experience in mind, he chose to follow behind her without making another peep. Even if Kiba insisted that Naruto talked to her, and even if it sounded like a good idea- none of that mattered if Sakura wanted to be alone.

Naruto halted, finding himself standing just feet from the library watching Sakura's retreating form blur amongst the other students and teachers loitering in the halls. He wondered for a brief moment if he was a bad friend before he determined that he was probably twice as worse as a person in general than as a friend.

For some odd reason, that made him feel better about what he did next.

Naruto turned away from her, ending the chase. He stared at the library, haunted with the temptation of reading more of that book again, but he turned his back on that too. Instead, Naruto resolved that for the sake of his friendships and his sanity that he was going to attempt the impossible.

He was going to confront everything that ever bothered him about Sasuke, and not a soul was going to get in the way.

Naruto was going to conquer the anger once and for all.

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

"Go away Naruto." Sasuke snapped the moment Naruto attempted to sit next to him. Occasionally this happened, Sasuke would develop these moods where he didn't want Naruto around at all. They always pissed him off.

"I'm not going anywhere, this is my seat-" Naruto plopped loudly in his chair, his books tumbled onto the desk with a loud clatter, "-so deal with it."

"Naruto-" Sasuke started in, taking one look at the stubborn look on Naruto's face with a snort and stopping whatever he was about to say in that moment. Instead Sasuke settled for moving all his things as far away from Naruto as possible in a very childish manner and glared at the board in front of them.

"Something wrong, Sasuke." It was Naruto's turn to snort and turn away from his friend childishly as a pair of thin pale arms wrapped their way around Sasuke's neck. Ino, she just had to have this class with them. Naruto could never stand her-she was always so grabby, scary and embarrassingly forward.

Not like Sakura- she didn't act like a bimbo.

"Hn." Sasuke answered her, unwrapping her arms from around his neck, she giggled in response, apparently finding some hidden message in the action.

"Okay Sasuke, see you later!" She walked away, back to her seat.

Naruto remembered this moment, it was one of his last days with Sasuke as "friends" and he always regretted not doing something to make Sasuke talk to him. The longing always burned when the memory came crawling back, begging for him to ask the most simple question.

_What did I do?_

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

Naruto doodled on the paper in front of him, they were back in English and presentations were happening today. More than half of the groups- at least from what he actually paid attention to- seemed to have no idea what they were doing.

Sasuke had yet to go.

The grip on his pencil tightened, he forced it to release with a sigh and jumped in the next instant when there group was called. Naruto crossed his arms and followed an oddly calm Sakura up to the front of the classroom. Sai stood right next to him, blocking Jugo from view in Naruto's peripheral vision.

The class was staring at them.

Normally, Naruto was not prone to stage fright. However, Sakura had not began to talk, nor had she motioned to give the teacher some sort of device thing- Naruto wasn't sure what it was called, USB something or another-that was supposed to have the project on it.

"This project, is stupid." The air seemed sucked out of the room the moment the words breezed out of Sakura's mouth like a summer wind on a nice sunny day. "Its a waste of time, energy, and focus. It's sloppily put together in direction and explanation. I hated every fucking bit of it and just decided it wasn't worth my time."

"Thats enough!" the teacher interfered with a yelp, "OFFICE! NOW!"

Sakura shrugged, strolling out of the room without a pass or note, and a deep regret swelled in Naruto's stomach. She was pissed, more than he realized, and if he had just gone and talked to her like he was supposed to then this might not have happened.

But it did, and now all of their grades were fucked.

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

"Go away." This time the words were not directed at Naruto, he checked, but on another very familiar face. Sakura stood in front of them looking very pissed about something with tears threatening to fall any second.

"Go away?" She echoed, shaking her head at Sasuke in disbelief. Naruto's eyes sprinted between them, trying to piece together what was going on. "That's all you can say to me?"

Sasuke replied with an unmoving cold stare and she shook her head again at him.

"I can't believe you." She turned away, disappearing down the hall and leaving Naruto to consider how long he would be watching her do that same act. For the rest of their school years probably.

"What was that about?" Naruto glared at Sasuke who didn't spare him another look as he shoved his hands in his pockets and moved forward. "Hey asshole! I'm talking to you!"

Naruto was ignored the whole way to their next class, unable to shake the feeling that he had missed something huge.

**ooooOOOOOoooo**

The second Naruto's feet hit the sidewalk, he rushed for his house. He had to find Sakura, had to let her know that it was all going to be okay, even though he had no idea what the hell was going on, and that she always had him.

He should have been doing that a long time ago.

Naruto cursed himself for his own damn pity party as he opened his front door and tossed his backpack in the hall before slamming it shut and stalking towards Sakura's bedroom window.

She wasn't in there, but he could hear the distinct shouts of her parents arguing in a room nearby. Naruto ignored them, following his gut as his feet carried him down the same path he'd been taking for years.

The park.

She would go to the park.

Sure enough, Naruto found her slouching on a swing set. He stood by, watching her fight the breeze flowing through her hair and the way her cheeks glistened under the rays of the sunlight.

"Sakura Haruno." Naruto called out in a mock parental voice, she turned her head for a brief moment, looking away when she realized it was him. He took a seat in the swing next to her and continued on with his charade. "Young woman how dare you tell a teacher off. I don't care how stupid, clueless and dumb your teacher is she deserves an unfounded respect! Next time, just punch her in the tit!"

Sakura jolted forward, slapping a hand over her mouth, the hint of a giggle escaping her lips before she sat up and hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Naruto! You're horrible! I'm horrible."

Sakura sighed, her green eyes hiding behind the shield of her eyelids as a touch of wind streamed from the skies, she let it do as it pleased, enjoying the feeling. Naruto followed her, doing the same and felt completely at ease for the first time in awhile.

He should have done this sooner.

"So I guess I can't run anymore?" The breeze past and Sakura gave him a small smile from her seat, "No more running away?"

"No more running away." Naruto nodded, kicking the rocks under his feet.

"On Valentine's day, Ino called me like usual and well, she..." Sakura took a deep breathe, "She told me that she loves me."

Naruto's eyes nearly shot out of his head and he gaped at her stupidly.

"I know." Sakura shook her head, "I don't know how to feel around her anymore. I mean, she's still my best friend- besides you- and I do care for it's so scary."

The grip she held around the chain links of the swing clenched tighter as her voice stained and small tears rolled down the side of her face. He reached out and patted her back, running his hand up and down as she gathered herself to continue.

"Naruto, I think that I do- I do like her back." Her voice raised sharply as she shook her head back and forth, almost protesting her own words. " But what about my mother?! Huh! What about me is so fucked up?! What is she going to say if she ever finds out? And Ino won't talk to me and Naruto-" He pulled her into a hug and she released a loud sob on his shoulder, he allowed her to cry, blinking back some of his own in an attempt to be manly. "Naruto, it hurts! It hurts so much. I haven't talked to Ino in days and it's like she's jamming a knife in my heart, I don't think I can be without her and be happy. Mom is going to hate me."

"No." They words flew from his mouth, pained by the thought of anyone turning her away. "She could never hate you, she just might not get it right away. But you always have me, and Ino no matter how pissed she is at you."

Sakura leaned off his embrace with a sniff, rubbing her arm from the awkward position they were in. "Thanks."

"I take credit not debit." Naruto held out his hand, she swatted it away with a genuine smile and rolled her eyes. He laughed, unable to stop his next question, "So if you're all lesbian then what about Sasuke?''

"Ugh Sasuke." Sakura sighed, stretching her arms out, "Don't even get me started. I thought I did like him, I mean Mom liked him and I was only supposed to date guys. But now that I think about it he sure is girly for a guy isn't he?"

"So you don't like him anymore?" Naruto clarified, the library incident looming in the background of his mind.

Sakura leaned in with a sly smile, her green eyes gleaming just like they always did, "Why do you care?"

"Wha-I don-Sakura!" Naruto snapped back into his parental figure role, "Young woman, you stop all this nonsense right now! I will not hear any of it anymore!" He huffed, rising from the swing and walking away. Naruto could hear Sakura following after him.

"Just answer the question!" Sakura pleaded, catching his arm with a sweet note, "Naruto!"

"Nope." Naruto shook his head, gagging, "I don't even what to think about what you just-yuck."

Sakura continued to plead with him the whole way back to her house, taunting and teasing him with the idea. To be honest, the thoughts solidified the heavy feeling on his chest until he felt that the weight alone would be enough to stop him from breathing. Sasuke is the enemy, not the lover.

Now someone just had to remind his heart about that.

* * *

**1. It seems like I've done something with ketchup before in a fic? but I can't remember what it was XD**

**2. why is it always Ino? Idk why I do it! But she seems like the party type to me XD for no real reason just, idk, impression? Anyway, this will be the last time I have her do it.**

**I'm really surpised about how short this one turned out *(but the flashbacks are shorter so O-o) , I mean I was expecting it to be a huge ass long thing! O-o but I like it, if you guys catch any stupid mistakes let me know. **

**Also how do you like my new transitions? I tried this before but I'm finally getting them to stick it seems so YAY! **

**Review!**


	8. Chapter 7

**IMPORTANT: DO NOT SKIP END AUTHOR NOTE **

**SOME SEXY-TIME STUFF- hope its okay**

* * *

**_Part Seven: Quizzes and Questions_**

God help them all.

It was happening again, and Sakura wasn't here this time to help him out- another English Project. Unfortunately she received suspension for her outburst and now he'd have to suffer with some other poor souls to work on yet another meaningless bit of school work.

"After our last-" The teacher cleared her throat and rubbed her hands together, "disaster of projects, I've decided to make a new project for this term."

The class let out a collective groan- some went as far as to smack their heads on their desks- but the teacher ignored them. "Your project will be to-" and just like that he was spacing out again, not because he was bored, but distracted. What if he did got paired up with Sasuke this time? No focus! " The advertisements will be made to "sell" whatever Rhetorical device your group receives and you'll have a week and a half to turn it in."

Naruto noticed that the class as a whole seemed relieved, this project did sound a whole lot simpler than the last one- wait! Why didn't they do this the first time?! Could have saved Sakura from a mental breakdown and him from this potential threat of being paired with people he didn't want to be forced into interacting with!

Before he knew it the can of sticks was in front of him, everyone seemed more eager this time around and that only made them pair up faster.

Green.

Naruto opened his eyes, turning toward the green table with a grim twist of his face only to be held in place by deep dark dreadful eyes.

Oh hell.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Naruto! That's not how it's supposed to go!" Naruto glared at the piece of notebook paper with a howl of frustration. It looked fine! What the heck was Sasuke talking about?! "Put it higher than that."

Naruto shifted on the floor, standing on his knees to reach the top of the board and pressing the table just barely over the surface before a long drawn out growl reached his ears. "What now?!"

"Just give it to me Dobe." Sasuke snatched the notebook paper, stopping to stare at it while Naruto- standing on his knees right beside him still- frowned at the board. "Naruto, none of this makes sense."

"It's everything you told me to write!" Naruto defended.

"Doesn't matter if no one can read it." Sasuke countered.

Naruto went red in the cheeks, "Then do the stupid project yourself!"

Sasuke leaned in, the end of his nose hovering just inches from Naruto's, "No."

Naruto groaned, standing up and sprawling out on Sasuke's bed. This was a nightmare, and here he hoped that working with his best friend might actually be fun. "Hey!" Naruto lurched up, rubbing the sore spot on the end of his foot where Sasuke had stabbed him with the blunt end of a pen. "What did you do that for?!"

"I'm not doing this by myself." Sasuke pointed at the floor without casting him a second glance, "Back on your knees, Naruto." **(1)**

"Stupid freaking..." Naruto grumbled, climbing off the bed and returning to his position beside Sasuke who proceeded to be an asshole to him for the next hour or so.

At the time, they'd only had two months left of friendship and didn't even know it.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

Clocks are stupid.

No, actually time in itself was stupid. Yes, Naruto concluded, it really was. Especially when time had to be spent with certain stupid therapists- mind rapist, his personal nickname for his therapist.

"Anything new going on?" **(2)** Kakashi- mind rapist extraordinaire- was playing with the end of his pencil while doodling on a piece of paper in front of him. Naruto didn't trust him, the mad genius inside was watching every move the blonde made and Naruto knew it.

"No." Naruto fought to keep his tone bored, his face still, but Kakashi looked up at him with an amused twinkle in his one eye and Naruto knew he'd been mind raped.

Naruto squirmed in his seat, trying to ignore the burn of Kakashi's gaze traveling lazily across his face, "Is that so?"

"Fine! I got paired up with Sasuke for a group project! Happy now?" Naruto threw his hands in the air, nearly knocking over a strangely misplaced dolphin off the corner of the side table next to him. It rocked back and forth, settling on the surface with a sigh.

"I'm always happy that you feel so comfortable telling me these things." Kakashi looked away again, continuing his doodle, "Now tell me Naruto, how does that make you feel?"

"Are you kidding me!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at him, "That's it! That's your big comeback!"

Kakashi ignored him, examining his pen with a troubled look on his face.

"Fine." Naruto gave in to his own maddening desire, "I feel freaking frustrated because I just resolved the other day to confront all the stupid stuff I hate about him, only now that's really hard because he's constantly sitting in front of my face!"

"Uh-huh." Kakashi shifted through a mess of pens on the coffee table in front of him, hunting. "Well how exactly do you plan to end something that involves another party without ever interacting with them? Tell me Naruto? What's the genius plan?"

"Uh well...look it's not like I was going to avoid him forever!" Naruto attempted to defend himself, well aware that it wasn't working.

"Naruto." His therapist eyed him, "Just remember that no matter what happens, you still have the support of many friends around you- friends you wouldn't have if you and Sasuke never had a falling out. And those friends include Kurama."

Naruto felt his face contort at the sound of his older brother's name. "I still haven't told him anything.." he confessed, tapping the dolphin figurine with a bored sigh. "He's just...not someone who I can talk to."

"Your brother is worried about you, and quite frankly Naruto I am as well." Kakashi cocked his head to one side, his hand still scribbling on the paper below, "You seem to be going backwards,your acting almost like you did your third or second visit."

"Is it over yet?" Naruto replied, earning a smirk from Kakashi.

"Yes, the session is over." Kakashi folded his drawing up and held it up to Naruto. "See you next month." Naruto unfolded the doodle the second he was out of the room.

It was him and Sasuke sitting in a tree.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"You're going to have to talk eventually." Naruto was wondering where Kurama found this guy, he always imagined that therapists were more...uptight.

It was his first visit, just two weeks after all the end of the stupid school year. Naruto didn't see why he had to visit with a therapist, things were getting better! Sakura and him were getting close, and just this upcoming weekend he would be attending one of Ino's infamous rebellious parties- after lots of pushing from Sakura, but whatever.

The point was, he didn't need to be in this office talking about his feelings to some guy who obviously didn't give a shit and was clearly drawing away on the notepad in front of him. Just as Naruto opened his mouth to make a comment about that, Kakashi ripped off the peice of paper, folded it and handed it out to Naruto. "Time's up. See you next week."

With a glare Naruto snatched the paper from the man's hands and grumbled under his breath down the hallway, curiosity got the best of him and finally he unfolded the stupid piece of paper.

It was Sasuke and him, well sort of. Sasuke was sitting in the tree looking down Naruto with a blank look while the blonde sat crying on the grass with the remnants of a broken tree branch around him.

Gee thanks new therapist. Naruto crumpled the paper up and threw it away.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

There were many words that could describe the moment right now- the main one being awkward. Naruto poked at the tofu and rice in front of him with a sour look on his face while Kurama ignored him, digging into his food with enthusiasm.

To Naruto's great surprise- and unease- Kurama suggested that they actually eat dinner together tonight on the drive home from Kakashi's office. He silently questioned how connected the two things were and reminded himself to curse at Kakashi for going behind his back when it came to Kurama.

"Are you going to eat Naruto?" Anyone listening might think that Kurama was reprimanding him but Naruto knew better, his brother just seemed tired.

"Yeah." Naruto shoveled a spoonful of food in his mouth with the intent of proving a point, "So how was work?"

"Busy." Kurama sighed, eyes still focused on the plate in front of him. "How is school?"

"Annoying." Naruto blurted, smirking at his outburst, "Our teacher assigned us another English project today because the last one was a complete failure. Everyone did badly."

"Really?" Kurama's fork clanged against the side his plate and with stretch he was washing the dish off in the sink. "Well, good luck with your project."

"Yeah." Naruto watched him leave the room, wondering if he was ever going to have a normal conversation with his brother again. Would they always have his argument and distant undertone? Did Kurama hate him for his faults, because he was saddled with Naruto? Would he ever want a normal relationship with Naruto anyway?

What killed him is how close he was to having it.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"This is A." Kurama pointed to a big bold bright red letter resting on a large board plastered to the wall, a newly turned five year old Naruto was sitting in his lap staring at the strange symbol with wide eyes.

"A." Naruto repeated, hopping off his brothers lap with a clap, "I know A!"

Kurama chuckled, rubbing the top of his head with a fond smirk as he pulled the eager Naruto back into his lap on the floor,"Not yet little man, but you will soon. Now come on and pay attention."

Naruto learned the alphabet by the end of the week.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

He wanted to be a little kid again.

If he was a little kid he could call Kurama, have him come pick him up and take care of him for the rest of the day. The sneaky cold was back again, this time with a vengeance and had bitten him in the ass halfway through the school day.

Naruto rubbed the side of his head, groaning into the side of the hallway wall. He had- by some miracle- acquired permission to go the nurses office, where he would lay down for about ten minutes and go to the next class.

He staggered down the hall, rubbing the side of his aching head with a sniff. "Naruto?" The blonde turned around, coming face to face with a very reluctant looking Gaara. He was sure that Gaara had been ignoring him since the field trip, he even switched seats in history. "You look terrible."

"Thanks." Naruto sighed, blinking slowly in his daze, "Are you still mad at me?"

Gaara eyed him up and down, expressionless as he stepped closer to the blonde, "I was never mad at you. Sasuke maybe, but not you."

Despite his sickness, Naruto caught the red-head off guard with a smile, radiating warmth. "That's a relief I thought I lost a new friend."

At the word friend, Gaara flushed, averting his eyes to glare at the ceiling- he was grateful that the halls were empty. "I'll take you to the nurse."

"That's okay." Naruto shook his head, pointing at Gaara, "You have class right now! So you-"

"I insist." Gaara stood closer to him and began to guide him down the hall, Naruto felt the room get hotter by at least 200 degrees and nearly died right there at the overwhelming quickly shook his head, tossing aside the stupid thought. He was just feeling feverish, that's all, and Gaara's body heat sure wasn't helping!

He wasn't really sure when he got to the nurse's office, but he has never been happier to see one of those stupid stiff beds waiting for him to rest in. His last thought before drifting off was that lunch was next.

Then after that, there was English to look forward to.

* * *

Imagine his surprise when Sakura and Ino showed up hand-in-hand, the rest of the room whispering and staring with questioning looks. His table seemed completely unfazed by the situation, considering they had half the day to get over the shock already.

"So what's it like to be lesbian." Kiba inquired the moment the new couple took their seats, all smiles.

"Shut-up Kiba." They chimed together. Kiba shuddered at the revelation that he was probably going to be getting away with less and less now that they were "getting along". Sakura turned, frowning at Naruto, "Naruto, are you feeling okay?"

"I'm alright." he shrugged, rubbing the back of his head, "Just a little tired."

"Alright." She replied in a tone that meant she wasn't buying what he was selling at all, "Take care of yourself."

He spent the rest of the lunch attempting to shovel the food down his throat- just like old times.

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

"Come on." Naruto giggled, pulling S-Sai's wrists, stumbling a little as he attempted to walk backwards up the steps behind him. When Ino invited him to a party, he didn't realize just how much alcohol was going to be involved. He'd never been drunk with people before and it was a very strange new experience.

"Naruto I don't-" Sai's strong words lost their vigor as a wandering hand slinked its way down the side of his back and wrapped around to cup a very excited member of his body, sending a shudder down the length of his back as he moaned.

"I want you." Naruto leaned into side of his neck, his words nearly escaping as a sob while he pressed a kiss to the crook of Sai's neck, "I want you so bad." Sai's breathing hitched when that same wandering hand wiggled it's way past the hem of his pants and began to palm his erection with a hint of uncertainty.

It was clear Naruto had never done this before, but his passion was more than compensating.

"Let's go upstairs."

**oooooOOOOOOooooo**

It seemed like awkward was slowly becoming the theme of his life.

His English group didn't just contain Sasuke, but Jugo and some chick who wouldn't talk to anyone but Sasuke were also included in the jumble.

Right at that moment he was really hoping Sai would appear out of nowhere and whisk him off.

"Hey faggot." Said chick suddenly addressed him, Naruto felt anger swelling inside but the throbbing reminder of his health toned down the emotion almost instantly.

"What- don't call me that." Naruto started to color whatever it was in front of him intently.

"Are you dating Gaara?" The marker halted instantly in his hands, did she just-? Naruto looked up, taking in the strange silence in the classroom and the way other students kept sneaking peeks at him from other groups.

He wondered if he should say yes just to screw with them, but decided that no- he wasn't going to bother. "No, we're not dating. He's just my friend."

"So fuck buddy then?" The chick gave him a satisfied smirk, staring down at her nails. In that moment, he became very aware of an intense stare coming from a not so distant enemy.

"Yeah, your right." Naruto smirked, thinking about Shikamaru and Kiba's response when he told them about this later. "Whenever we have free time, I let him bend me over his lap and spank me until I cum."

The room seemed to burst into life at the comment- with heckles, whistles, laughter, and jeering. Sasuke-who he had yet to look at- let out a strangled noise of something in-between disgust and irritation. The chick leaned over her desk now, declaring a war. "Just spanking? That's pretty weak."

"What's a matter? Never been satisfied by foreplay before?" Naruto taunted back, some very unwanted hazy flashbacks of moments with Sai from a long time ago popping up, he pushed them away by looking her up and down with a mock examining stare, "I bet you've never been out of the missionary position."

The chick let out a growl, gripping the ends of her desk until her knuckles were white. "Look here coc-"

"Karin that's enough!" Sasuke's outburst was low and strong, something that could hardly be called a yell but the feeling was just the same. He turned to Naruto, glaring at him with an amount of fury that the blonde hadn't seen in years. "Stop acting like a slut."

"Acting?" Naruto bit the end of his lip, leaning in with a glare just because he knew that's what would piss Sasuke off the most- and that was exactly what he wanted right now, he wanted Sasuke hot and furious and shaking with anger. "Who's acting?"

Three seconds passed for that fist met his face and he was glad for it.

It was what he wanted.

* * *

**1. The answer is yes, I did do this entire flashback just because I wanted Sasuke to say that HEHEHEHEHEHHEHE**

**2. I love him in this role, idk why**

**I planned for this to be long, and it ended up being short? -shakes head-**

**Hey! So anyway, here is the important note. MY COMPUTER IS AN ASSHOLE! POOF GOES YET ANOTHER PLOT LINE! Good news? I had back-up! Even if it is only half of what I had before O-o So I need a favor dear readers! I need YOU to tell me what you want to know- even if it's obvious. This is so I can avoid plot holes or things I just need to cover and might have overlooked as the writer. :D**

**Like example: What did this say? Or WHAT THE SHIT HAPPENED THERE?**

**So review, PM whatever! XD Well, at least if you want another update...**


	9. QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT

**Hey!**

**Alright so here is the deal, I've been sick for the past couple of weeks and it has been driving me insane because I have not worked on even for my non-fanfiction stuff. Not much other than fighting fevers, sleeping, and getting irritated with my inability to do anything. :P And I thought it was the Flu at first, but then the doctor was like "No, not the flu." So they've taken a bunch of my blood and are doing tests or whatever. So I'm going to break this down into good news and bad news for you.**

**Good news: I'm feeling better, after five different medications! Whoo! **

**Bad News: I'm still sick with shit and they just have no clue right now. Meaning I have no clue, and am up and down all the time with shit. (shit=symptoms of whatever the hell is wrong with me) **

**Good News: NOT DISCONTINUING I HAVE CHAPTERS HALF WRITTEN AND EVERYTHING! **

**Bad News: The results of my tests, whatever they are, might have an impact on my writing in the future so wish me luck with that. **

**Good News: I MISS MY FANFICTION T-T SO I'M GOING TO BE WRITING IT LIKE CRAZY WHEN I CAN!**

**So see more good news than bad, most of the bad news has to do with my health which is important because I kind of have to be in okay health to write, or at least better than I have been :) Be looking for updates soon! They are coming! **

**PEACE OUT! **


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